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 17th
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.
