February 16, 1865---Panic in Columbia

FEBRUARY 16, 1865:      

As the Union Army under General William Tecumseh Sherman, now swollen to 80,000 men, approaches Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, panic grips the city. 

 

Although most of the South is devastated, Columbia lies in one of the few areas as yet untouched by the ravages of war. Shortages plague the poor, but the wealthy are indeed faring far better than their friends in Richmond. As late as January 17^th the city is able to hold a massive and successful fundraising bazaar to provide for less fortunate Confederates. The Mayor’s and Governor’s calls to build defenses around the city in late January have been roundly ignored, however; the city is full of people who firmly believe that the Confederacy is invincible.  

Since February 1st Columbia’s population has doubled. Refugees from the smaller towns and cities and the country farms sacked by Sherman’s forces have crammed themselves into Columbia. The luckiest have put up with relatives and friends or in hotels. The less lucky are sleeping in the lobbies of businesses and public buildings. The least fortunate are reduced to being street people. 

Columbia’s residents, old and new, had hoped bitterly against hope that Sherman would turn his massive force against Charleston, but he has not;  he considers Charleston a “mere desolate wreck” of a city, and is unwilling to waste energy merely rearranging the ruins. Instead, straight as an arrow, his vast force is gathered all together to take the crowded “vital” capital, “as important to the Confederacy as is Richmond.”

Native Columbians and refugees, assuming that Columbia will be burned, begin grabbing whatever they can and leaving the city by the northward roads, into the winter weather and away from Sherman. The State Archives are quickly crated up and sent north to North Carolina in the company of the city garrison under the command of General Wade Hampton C.S.A..

The city garrison had indeed tried to stop Sherman’s forces at the Congaree River just the day before. Vastly outnumbered, after a token defense the troops had turned and fled back into the city limits. Now they are leaving again, but with their backs to the enemy.

A long wagon train of sick and elderly South Carolinians accompanies them, as do long trudging lines of the desperate homeless. Those with no place else to go remain behind, waiting for come what may.

"Car after car left with the officials of the treasury department, and hundreds of individuals who feared to be captured by the enemy," Madame S. Sosnowski wrote afterward.  

"I never saw such a crowd and rush, the car windows were smashed in, women and children pushed through, some head foremost, others feet foremost," Mary Darby de Treville was to say in her memoirs.

One of those who leaves Columbia is Joseph E. Johnston, who has been living in virtual retirement in the city since Jefferson Davis dismissed him from command of the Army of Tennessee. There is a rising call for Johnston’s reinstatement as a General Commanding. Robert E. Lee himself has insisted that Davis appoint Johnston to a senior command, but to date, Davis, who despises Johnston, has refused to listen to Lee. Johnston rushes to Richmond in order to be available if and when the order finally comes.

It is not Sherman’s intention to burn Columbia, or so he says. He wants to occupy it, seize its supplies and resources, and keep a force there to impress upon South Carolina (and indeed the other secesh States) that it is a part indeed of the United States.

While the roads are still open word is sent from Columbia to Charleston that all Confederate military forces should leave the beleaguered city on the coast. All forces are ordered north to join with Lee in Virginia. No one deludes themselves; this means that proud battered Charleston will fall. Sherman has accomplished in less than three weeks what four years of war could not accomplish.  

As it transpires, the folk of Columbia are given the grace to flee. The bridges over the Congaree are burned, the Congaree is in flood, and the weather is bad. Sherman is unwilling to march his men forward under such conditions. He is also concerned that the city garrison might open fire with the batteries that Sherman knows are in the city.

Instead of marching straight into the city, he turns north toward the Broad River, where he spends the day building a great pontoon bridge. Once across the Broad his troops can avoid the Congaree.  Columbia can wait one more day.