WHITE OFFICERS AND COLORED GIRLS. 551

tied them to their horses' tails. They dressed up the negroes that followed them. They strung cow-bells all around their horses and cattle. They killed chickens and brought them into the house on their bayonets, all dripping.

6

"Two came into the house drunk, and ordered the old cook to get them some dinner. She told them we had nothing left. 'Go and kill a weasel!' said they. She boiled them some eggs. They took one, and peeled it, and gave it to my little boy. Here, eat that!' said one. 'But I've a good mind to blow your brains out, for you 're a dd little Rebel.' This man was from Connecticut, a native of the same town my husband came from. It would have been curious if they had met, and found that they were old acquaintances!

"Some behaved very well. One was handling the fancy things on the what-not, when another said, 'It won't help crush the Rebellion to break them.' 'I ain't going to break them,' he said, and he did n't.

"My husband had moved up a large quantity of crockery and glass-ware from his store in Charleston, for safety. The Yankees smashed it all. They would n't stop for keys, but broke open every drawer and closet. There wasn't a lock left in the neighborhood.

"For three nights we never lay down at all. I just sat one side of the fireplace and another young lady the other, thinking what had happened during the day, and wondering what dreadful things would come next.

"She had helped me bury three boxes of silver in the cellar. The soldiers were all around them, and afterwards I found one of the boxes sticking out; but they did n't find them. When they asked me for my silver I thought I'd lie once, and I told them I had none. It's a lie,' says one. Then the old cook's son spoke up, Take the word of a slave; she's nothing buried.' On that they stopped looking.

"Some of the officers had colored girls with them. One stopped over night with his miss at the house of one of our neighbors. When they came down stairs in the morning, she was dressed up magnificently in Mrs. J's best clothes.

They ordered breakfast; while they were eating, the last of the army passed on, and they were left behind. 'Captain,' says she, 'aint ye wery wentur'some?'

"When one division was plundering us, the men would say, 'We're nothing; but if such a division comes along, you're gone up.'

"Besides the fifty bushels of corn the lieutenant left us, I don't think there were fifty bushels in the whole district. Our neighbors were jealous because we had been treated so much better than they. The Yankees did n't leave enough for the children to eat, nor dishes to eat off of. Those who managed to save a little corn or a few potatoes, shared with the rest.

"We thought we were served badly enough. Of all my bedding, I had but two sheets and a pillow-case left. The Yankees did n't spare us a hat or a coat. They even took the children's clothes. We had n't a comb or a brush for our heads the next day, nor a towel for our hands. But, after all is said about Sherman's army, I confess some of our own soldiers, especially Wheeler's men, were about as bad.

"I never gave the negroes a single order, but they went to work, after the Yankees had passed, and cleared up the whole place. They took corn and ground it; and they went to the Yankee camp for meat, and cooked it for us. Our horses were taken, but they planted rice and corn with their hoes. There were scarcely any white men in the country. Most were in the army; and the Yankees took prisoners all who came under the conscript act. They carried some away who have never been heard from since.

"My husband was in Charleston, and for weeks neither of us knew if the other was alive. I walked seventeen miles to mail a letter to him. The old cook went with me and carried my child. From seven in the morning until dark, the first day, I walked twelve miles; and five the next. The old cook did n't feel tired a bit, though she carried the baby; but she kept saying to me, 'Do don't set down dar, missus; we 'll neber git dar!' We were two days coming home again."

FALL OF PRIDE.

553

CHAPTER LXXVII.

THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA.

"IT has pleased God," says the writer in the "Daily Phoenix," already quoted, "to visit our beautiful city with the most cruel fate which can ever befall states or cities. He has permitted an invading army to penetrate our country almost without impediment; to rob and ravage our dwellings, and to commit three fifths of our city to the flames. Eighty-four squares, out of one hundred and twenty-four which the city contains, have been destroyed, with scarcely the exception of a single house. The ancient capitol building of the State-that venerable structure, which, for seventy years, has echoed with the eloquence and wisdom of the most famous statesmen — is laid in ashes; six temples of the Most High God have shared the same fate; eleven banking establishments; the schools of learning, the shops of art and trade, of invention and manufacture; shrines equally of religion, benevolence, and industry; are all buried together, in one congregated ruin. Humiliation spreads her ashes over our homes and garments, and the universal wreck exhibits only one common aspect of despair."

Columbia, the proud capital of the proudest State in the Union, who ever supposed that she could be destined to such a fate? Who ever imagined that in this way that fine bird, secession, would come home to roost?

Almost until the last moment the people of South Carolina, relying upon the immense prestige of their little State sovereignty, even after the State was invaded, believed that the capital was safe. Already, during the war, thousands of citizens from Charleston and other places, in order to avoid the possibility of danger, had sought the retirement of its beautiful shady streets and supposed impregnable walls. The popula

tion of Columbia had thus increased, in two or three years, from fourteen thousand to thirty-seven thousand. Then Sherman appeared, driving clouds of fugitives before him into the city. Still the inhabitants cherished their delusion, until it was dispelled by the sound of the Federal cannon at their gates. The Confederate troops fell back into the city, followed by bursting shells.

Then commenced the usual scenes of panic. "Terrible was the press, the shock, the rush, the hurry, the universal confusion—such as might naturally be looked for, in the circumstances of a city from which thousands were preparing to fly, without previous preparations for flight, burdened with pale and trembling women, their children and portable chattels, trunks and jewels, family Bibles and the lares familiares. The railroad depot for Charlotte was crowded with anxious waiters upon the train, with a wilderness of luggage, millions, perhaps, in value, much of which was left finally and lost. Throughout Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, these scenes of struggle were in constant performance. The citizens fared badly. The Governments of the State and of the Confederacy absorbed all the modes of conveyance. Transportation about the city could not be had, save by a rich or favored few. No love could persuade where money failed to convince, and SELF, growing bloated in its dimensions, stared from every hurrying aspect, as you traversed the excited and crowded streets. In numerous instances, those who succeeded in getting away, did so at the cost of trunks and luggage; and, under what discomfort they departed, no one who did not see can readily conceive." 1

Numbers of the poorer classes took advantage of this confusion to plunder the city. On Friday morning, they broke into the South Carolina Railroad Depot, which was "crowded with the stores of merchants and planters, trunks of treasure, innumerable wares and goods of fugitives, all of great value. It appears that among its contents were some kegs of powder. The plunderers paid, and suddenly, the penalties of their crime. 1 Daily Phoenix.

ORIGIN OF THE FIRES.

555

Using their lights freely and hurriedly, they fired a train of powder leading to the kegs." A fearful explosion followed, destructive to property and life.1

Old men,

Early on Friday the Confederate quartermaster and commissary stores were thrown open to the people. women, children, and negroes, loaded themselves with plunder. Wheeler's cavalry rushed in for their share, and several troopers were seen riding off "with huge bales of cotton on their saddles.” 1

The same day-Friday, February 17th- Sherman entered Columbia. To the anxious mayor he said: "Not a finger's breadth of your city shall be harmed. You may lie down and sleep, satisfied that your town will be as safe in my hands as in your own." That night Columbia was destroyed.

It is still a question, who is responsible for this calamity. General Sherman denies that he authorized it, and we are bound to believe him. But did he not permit it? or was it not in his power at least to have prevented it? General Howard is reported to have said to a clergyman of the place, that no orders were given to burn Columbia, but the soldiers. had got the impression that its destruction would be acceptable. at head-quarters. Were the soldiers correct in their impression ?

A member of General Sherman's staff speaks thus of the origin of the fire:

"I am quite sure that it originated in sparks flying from the hundreds of bales of cotton which the Rebels had placed along the middle of the main street, and fired as they left the city. Fire from a tightly compressed bale of cotton is unlike that of a more open material, which burns itself out. The fire lies smouldering in a bale of cotton long after it appears to be extinguished; and in this instance, when our soldiers supposed they had extinguished the fire, it suddenly broke out again with the most disastrous effect.

"There were fires, however, which must have been started independent of the above-named cause. The source of these 1 Daily Phænix.