Personal Recollections of Sherman's Campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas

by George W Pepper

  The streets throughout this district were covered with the broken and burned remains of furniture of every variety. Near the new State House a large bonfire of tobacco, nearly two hundred feet long, fifty feet wide and five feet high, was burning, and wasting its fragrance on the air. A number of Jews were standing by, weeping and exclaiming: "Me poor, me starb, starb, starb. Your mens come in mine house, kicks me out, sets fire to mine house. Me carry mine topaoey out on the street. Your mens puts wood on him and

  Eurns all mine topaccy." Around the new State House, however, were stronger evidences of the rage and hate of the soldiers toward every thing belonging to, or connected with, the State of South Carolina, than even the general appearance of the town. This building was unfinished. Most of the ornamental portion had not been removed from the boxes in which it had been brought there. "There were the remains of fluted columns, capitals, entablatures, friezes and cornices of the finest Italian marble, that had been destroyed by fire, defaced by blows from muskets, and mashed by axes and hammers."

  Even the monument erected by the State to the gallant dead of the Palmetto Regiment (1st South Carolina) in the Mexican war, had not been spared. It consisted of four iron columns, resting on a foundation of stone, and supporting an iron platform surmounted be a Palmetto tree of the same material, twenty feet high and painted green, a true copy from nature. On brass panels, between the iron columns below, were inscribed the names, residences, cause, and date of death of all the dead of the regiment. One of these panels has been battered to pieces.

  At noon I returned to my regiment, engaged in destroying railroad near the city. Close at hand was a vacant building containing a fine library belonging to the Rhett, Barnwell, Heywood, and Middleton families. It was fired and burned in the presence, and without a word of remonstrance, of an officer commanding a brigade, who has since been a candidate on the Democratic State Ticket in a Western State. Late in the afternoon we went into camp some five miles from Columbia. There my friend joined the regiment and related a conversation that he heard between a committee of ladies from Columbia and General Sherman. To their request for protection he replied: Do not ask me for protection, I am an enemy and a destroyer." "Well, who will we go to?" "Go to Davis, Lee, Beauregard and Hampton." They can not protect us." “Then go to Wheeler. You made war on our government, declared us enemies, fired on our flag, and can now only look to those whom you chose for protectors, for protection." "Why, General Sherman," said one, "you took tea at my father's when you were stationed at Fort Moultrie ?" "I do not remember of doing so, but it is quite likely I did. I often did so, but you were a friend then and you had not fired on Fort Sumpter?" "Well, General, did you not say at Savannah that you intended to let your army loose when you got into our State." “No, I did not say so." “Why then did you burn our town, or allow your army to do so?" "I did not burn your town, nor did my army. Your brothers, sons, husbands and fathers set fire to every city, town and village in the land when they fired on Fort Sumpter. That fire kindled then and there by them has been burning ever since, and reached your houses last night. Neither I, nor my army, nor Government, made this war. It was begun by your own friends." Well, were you not in command of the army last night?" “I did not command my army last night, and cannot command my men when they are drunk. The people of Columbia made them drunk. I saw well-dressed ladies handing them liquor by the bucketful." “Will you allow us to go to Charleston?" "You have my full consent to go wherever you wish, but do not go there. If my army should go there, and it may do so, they will not leave one stone on another in that city."

  It is due to General Sherman to say that the people of Columbia could never forget about their rights under the constitution. The correctness of this report was confirmed by one of the ladies on the committee. About nine P. M., the bugles of our brigade sounded “strike tents,” and in a short time the brigade was under arms ready to march. An order was read to the men from General Howard to General Blair to send the best disciplined and most reliable brigade in the Seventeenth Army Corps back to Columbia for guard duty, and that ours had been selected accordingly. We arrived there about eleven P. M., and guards were placed on duty over the town. Next day I strolled over the place and talked with a number of citizens. The report of G. W. Howe, D. D., whom many in the North will remember as Professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Columbia, on treatment received from friend and foe, was as follows: "I went to General Hampton, on hearing that he intended to destroy the bridge over the Congaree River, which was mainly owned by the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and begged him not to do so. I stated to him that his forces were entirely insufficient to oppose the army of General Sherman, that burning the bridge would only exasperate his (Sherman's) army; and would probably be used as a pretext for pillaging the city; that, at most, it would only delay their progress for a few hours, and that the bridge was owned by a charitable institution. He became very angry at me, bade me go— and threatened to hang me— using many abusive epithets. I was seized, hustled, and my life threatened by some of your men during the night of the 17th. My house was fired three times by the pillagers, and was put out by myself, assisted by a few of your men, I appealed to many officers and men for protection, but most of them laughed at me. I stated that I was a minister of the gospel; and was told in reply that preachers were the greatest rascals and meanest rebels in the South, and the very fellows they were after. Even when I asked for assistance in saving my house, they coolly informed that they owned no property in the town." The Doctor was really of the opinion that he had experienced rough treatment on all sides. A lady who was on the Committee that waited on General Sherman gave her opinion of that individual and Wheeler as follows: “He is very unfeeling and unkind. He spoke so very disrespectfully of our President, Mr. Davis— calling him Jeff. Davis, and even Old Jeff. He insulted the first ladies of the place by referring them to General Wheeler for protection. General Wheeler is a Christian and a gentleman, but his men are terrible ruffians, and unfit to be the protectors of ladies. I have heard of greater outrages perpetrated by Tennesseans and Georgians in his command than I ever heard charged against the Yankees. The troops from those States hate the people of South Carolina more bitterly than they do the North. South Carolina seems to be forsaken by the Lord and hated by the troops on both sides."

  A Catholic priest gave the following account of matters and things before and after our entry into the place on the 17th: "Everything was terribly mismanaged by Wade Hampton and the citizens. The former refused to allow the Mayor to start to meet General Sherman, and surrender the place in form; even after his rear guard had left their position along the Congaree and were retreating, "he still continued to talk about fighting from street to street, and from house to house, and making a Saragossa of the place.” After the depot and cotton on the streets had been fired by his orders, he called on the citizens to imitate the conduct of the inhabitants of Numantia—and of the Russians at Moscow, and on the ladies to imitate the example of the wife of Arsdrobel at the destruction of Carthage. The Charlotte depot was full of ammunition and provision, and a crowd of women and children collecting to get the provision — the explosion that occurred hours before your forces came into the town, killed and wounded nearly a hundred of them. In consequence of his refusal to allow the Mayor to meet General Sherman, your forces came into the place before he met any officer at all. The troops, that entered first, behaved very well and assisted the citizens in putting out the fire that wad threatening the whole place. "The citizens had abundance of liquor that bad been abandoned by the owners, and to secure the good will of your soldiers, deluged them with it." Most of the guards became drunk. A general rush was then made by the soldiers for the houses and stores of blockade-runners, where they found large quantities of the same article. About nine P. M., a number of soldiers and escaped prisoners set fire to the houses of a number of citizens, who had been prominent in inaugurating secession and made themselves obnoxious to your men who had bee
n our prisoners. "Though but few soldiers seemed to take any part in setting fire to houses, all favored the burning of the city. Scarcely any tried to stay or prevent it."

  The Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum said that hundreds of soldiers came on the grounds attached to the institution, with torches in their hands to burn the buildings, but on his informing them of their character, retired, saying, "Lunatics had nothing to do with getting up the rebellion. We are not after lunatics." Different from these was the account of Mrs. Wife of Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army, who died at San Francisco in 1864, and was a brother of the gallant Major —, killed at Palo Alto in the Mexican war. When the war begun her husband remained true to his flag, and she continued to live at Charleston until the great fire in 1861. Since then her home has been in Columbia. Though a native of South Carolina, her sympathies were well known to be in favor of the Union, and it was also known that she kept the old flag in her house. True to her feelings, no sooner had the rebel rear guard passed by her house than she hung out the stars and stripes. The bummers of the Fifteenth Army Corps, who had stolen away from their officers, came galloping by and halted to inquire its meaning. She came to the door and remarked, "I am glad to see you, boys." One. Of them replied, " Glad to see us— yes, all you secesh are glad to see us. You want to save your house.' 9 "No," replied she, “my husband died in your army, and my brother was killed at Palo Alto. I was always a Union woman." "Your husband died in our army, and you a Unionist, in the State of South Carolina?"

  Just then her little girl came to the door and exclaimed: “Oh, here are our boys!” “Why," said some one of the bummers, "I declare, here is one Unionist in the State of South Carolina. Three cheers for the only Union lady in the State." Another said, "We must leave a guard here." Four went on guard. As the crowd started on, one of the guards called out: "Tell the boys not to set fire to any of the houses near here."

  At one time during the night of the 17th, when the fire threatened that quarter of the town, one and all of the soldiers went to work and stopped its spread. Not only was this done, but the guard protected the houses of her neighbors at her request. The fire broke out simultaneously in three different places— the prison, where Union soldiers had been confined as prisoners of war, Wade Hampton's former residence and the Congaree House. Wade Hampton, however, had sold this residence some time previous; it was still called the Hampton Mansion, and he had lately bought the residence of General Preston. This was not burned. His residence is on his plantation, near Columbia, but burned by a band of marauders, who left notice that they intended to leave no vestige of the Hampton's property or family. This took place previous to Sherman's army entering the State. My informant supposed that they were a band of Abolition emissaries. It may have been the work of escaped prisoners, but it is more than likely that it was done by deserters from the rebel army, who plundered and burned the houses of those who had been prominent in getting up the rebellion throughout the confederacy, during the last six months of its existence. On the 19th, hundreds of men were engaged in destroying the last vestige of everything that had been or could be used for military purposes. Houses that had been used for that purpose! Were burned and battered down under the superintendence of General Sherman. Fires repeatedly occurred where houses were found to contain cotton, tar or turpentine. The guard declared they were cases of "spontaneous combustion," the "heart of King Cotton becoming fired at the sight of the stars and stripes." At 5 P. M., the large arsenal was blown up. The standing order on the march to the sea, to destroy Government property "in a manner more devilish than can be dreamed of," was fully carried out. Next morning our brigade, the last of Sherman's army, left the ruins of what had been a city of thirty thousand inhabitants in ruins.

  The next place of interest is the handsome and snug little village of Liberty Hill. In this portion of the State many things are attractive to the traveler's eyes. For days accustomed to swamps, bogs, pathless roads, creeks, and corduroy bridges, makes one believe and feel as if he had compassed the globe, or jumped the long blank in his history. The bewitching town of Liberty Hill is situated on an elevated plateau. The beautiful river which meanders by it, like a belt of silver, furnishes irrigation to the gardens and plantations. The spacious church, with its heaven-pointing spire; the splendid academy, the smiling and handsome women, all conspire to invest it with interest. To me, foot-sore and weary, it was like a magical creation. Aladdin's lamp could not have conjured up a brighter or more unexpected scene. It is an old place revised, enlarged and modernized. It is the Eschol of Cardina.

  A few hours march from Liberty Hill, brought us to the country known down in Dixie, as Flat Rock. In this region, nature seems to struggle with herself; extremes meet here, for the first time in the State, we have alternations of valley and mountain — rich and poor land— sterile wastes, and then bright, sparkling streams, with verdant banks. The prospect from this rock, is one of the finest and most extensive in the State, having the calmly-flowing Wateree on the right, and the mountains of North Carolina in the distance, with a vast range of luxuriant and rich country intervening. The setting of a February sun, was now added to the enchanting loveliness of the scene. I entered fully into the enthusiasm of the poet, when, of a similar scene, he exclaims —

  "Heavens! what a goodly prospect spread all around,

  Of hills and dales, and woods and rocks,

  And towns and golden streams, till all

  The stretching landscape into smoke decays."

  Orangeburg has been a neat and enterprising city. It is situated on the North Edisto, seventy-nine miles north-west of Charleston. The first settlers of the place were German Moravians. The Cherokee and Cahawba Indians had preceded them. The town is built on a hill over-looking the river. From the rear of the place the land recedes slightly in alternate successions of beautiful prairie and choice timber, comprising magnolia, birch and willow. The Seventeenth Corps captured the town. A portion of it was destroyed by fire; caused by a rebel citizen who set fire to his cotton, rather than let it fall into our hands. The residences are fitted up with reference to durability and comfort, and are surrounded by a profusion of flowers and shrubbery, which add very much to their beauty and attractiveness. The only clergyman of the place, is a Methodist elder, named Chreisberg. I conversed freely with him on the war and kindred theories. He acknowledged the hopelessness of the rebel cause, and said that peace on any terms would be acceptable to the great majority of the people. He spoke highly of the good conduct of our troops. The only public institution of note in the place is the Orphan Asylum, where almost four hundred orphans, who would otherwise grow up in poverty and ignorance, are clothed and fed at the public expense. The grounds are tastefully laid out, and ornamented for the comfort of the children. The neatness and cheerfulness .of these helpless ones, and the accuracy and the readiness with which they go through their appointed tasks, speak well for the fidelity of their teachers. They sung for us, several touchingly sweet hymns. The well-known one, commencing with the words "I want to be an angel," produced a thrilling effect.

  Cheraw, on the Pedee river; is a beautiful town. The public buildings are substantial and handsome. For an old town, it presents a neat and elegant appearance. The squares nave been finely improved. The residence of Mr. Lynch, the father of the Archbishop of Charleston, exhibits exquisite taste, combining both elegance and comfort. The town is over a hundred years old. The Episcopal Church is a monument! Of revolutionary memories. This place was originally settled by Welsh emigrants, and they called it Chatham.

  It was afterwards changed to its present name. The place itself is associated with much that is glorious in the annals of the State. The dullest heart cannot fail to be roused by the traditions of this time-honored town. The citizens are weary and sick of the war, and earnestly desire its end. There are three rebel hospitals in the place, filled with sick and wounded. These poor fellows want the rebel authorities to lay down their arms and quit the infamous work of slaughter.r />
  Reverend Doctor Brown, formerly of Virginia, is the Episcopal clergyman. He is a gentleman of fine mind and accomplished gifts. He studied in Gambier, many years ago, and spoke tenderly of Bronson, Badger, Blake, and a Host of old friends. Three years ago, he was a fierce war man; now he assures me, he goes with all his heart for peace, on the basis of universal liberty. Though, he says, his beautiful church at Centreville was destroyed, and his dwelling burnt over his head at Fairfax, yet he loves the old Government He was fortunate in meeting a nephew, Captain Buell, of General Howard's staff. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Doctor Brown corroborates the testimony of other leading ministers, in stating the approaching end of the rebellion. In the churchyard, there is a short inscription on a plain slab, which has excited the curiosity of more than one generation. Whether the deceased was a carpenter, a smith, a tinker, or, perhaps, an amateur geologist; what his nativity, his age, his time of death, no record informs us.

  FAYETTEVILLE.

  Fayetteville is a city of magnificent residences, one of the oldest in the South. It was taken by the 17th and t 14th Corps simultaneously. The army is in good spirits, and will move tomorrow, somewhere. The health of the troops thus far, has been excellent. The rebel troops are gathering at Raleigh. We may go there or to Goldsboro; perhaps to Richmond. I write these last lines in a very great hurry, as the boat is leaving. A courier volunteers his offices to take this communication through.