HEADQUARTERS
MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
IN
THE FIELD NEAR COLUMBIA, S.C., Feb. 16, 1865.
Special
Field Orders,}
No.
EXTRACT.
The
next series of movements will be at Fayetteville, N.C., and thence to
Wilmington or Goldsboro, according to events. Great care must be taken to
collect forage and food, and at the same time in covering the wagon trains from
cavalry dashes.
General
Howard will cross the Saluda and Broad rivers as near their mouths as possible,
occupy Columbia, destroy the public buildings, railroad property, manufacturing
and machine shops, but will spare libraries, and asylums, and private
dwellings. He will then move to Winnsboro, destroying en route utterly that
section of the railroad.
By
order of Major-General
W.
T. SHERMAN.
L. M. DAYTON, Assistant Adjutant-General.
This order was made
the day before we entered Columbia, about the time the rebels were cannonading
our camps on the west side of the Congaree, and burning their three splendid
bridges (Saluda and Broad unite at Columbia and make the Congaree). During the
16th Howard crossed the Saluda at the factory above Columbia, and that night
crossed Stone's brigade to the east side of the Broad River, and under its
cover laid the pontoon bridge, completing it about noon of the 17th. Stone's
brigade went into Columbia about 11 A.M., the mayor having come out three miles
and notified him that Beauregard and Hampton had evacuated. They evacuated
because they knew that Slocum and Kilpatrick were moving straight for
Winnsboro, 26 miles in their rear, and I wanted them to stay in Columbia
another day. Their hasty evacuation was not to spare Columbia, but to save
being caught in the forks of the Congaree and Catawba, which would have
resulted, had they given time for Slocum to reach Winnsboro. Mayor Goodwin
complained to me of the cotton-burning order of Wade Hampton, and especially
that Hampton and Beauregard would not consent to his request that the liquor
(which had run the blockade and been transferred from the coast to Columbia for
safety) was not removed or destroyed. This liquor, which our men got in
bucketfuls, was an aggravation, and occasioned much of the disorder at night
after the fires had got headway. We all know how the soldiers and junior
officers hated South Carolina, and I can hardly say what excesses would have
resulted had the general officers allowed them free scope.
W. T. SHERMAN.
