THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

Northern Lies about the Burning of Columbia

Northern Lies about the Burning of Columbia

By Karen Stokes on Feb 15, 2018

When you hear or read about the burning of Columbia, General Sherman's principal target in South Carolina, you are often told that the origin of the fire is a historical mystery that can't be conclusively solved, or that the fires were actually initiated by the evacuating Confederate troops, or even by the citizens of Columbia themselves—none of which is true.

In her recent book Sherman's Flame and Blame Campaign, journalist Patricia McNeely investigated why such falsehoods about the burning of Columbia have persisted over the decades, despite the fact that she had "read an avalanche of eye-witness accounts that leave no doubt that General William T. Sherman's drunken troops burned Columbia." Before Columbia was surrendered on February 17, 1865, some cotton bales had been placed in the middle of Main Street "in order to be burned to prevent their falling into the possession of the invaders," as it was stated in an official report compiled by a committee of Columbia citizens. The Confederate commanders, including General Wade Hampton, however, were afraid this might endanger the town and issued explicit orders that the cotton should not be burned, and subsequently the Confederate forces withdrew from Columbia leaving the cotton bales in the middle of the wide street (which was muddy from an overnight rain).

As Sherman's forces filled the city the morning of February 17, some of the cotton bales were set afire, some said from the cigars of the soldiers, but these smaller fires were completely extinguished by mid-afternoon. The fires that destroyed much of the city did not begin until about 8 o'clock in the evening. The following day, Sherman attributed the burning of the city to his drunken troops. Not long afterward, however, he claimed that General Wade Hampton was responsible for the city's destruction and that Hampton's men had set the cotton on fire before departing. Ten years later, when Sherman's memoirs were published, he admitted that he had laid the blame on Gen. Hampton merely to shake the confidence of the South Carolina people in their hero Hampton.

Lt. Colonel George Ward Nichols was one of Sherman's staff officers. His war memoir, The Story of the Great March, came out in 1865, and two years later, he met "Wild Bill Hickok" (James Butler Hickok) and published a story about this Old West folk hero in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. It made Hickok famous but was widely criticized for false and exaggerated accounts of his exploits. In 1866, Nichols published an article in the same magazine entitled "The Burning of Columbia." In this laughable and disingenuous account, he not only laid the principal blame for the calamity on General Hampton, but also suggested that most of the pillage of the city had been committed by Confederate cavalrymen under the command of Gen. Joseph Wheeler. There is overwhelming evidence—most of it eyewitness testimony—that Sherman's soldiers began stealing and pillaging from the moment they broke ranks in the city. This sacking of Columbia went on all day as well as during the night of the fire, and into the following day.

In "The Burning of Columbia" Nichols described a conversation he had the night of the fire with a Mr. Huger, "a well known citizen of South Carolina," in which he claimed that Huger confirmed to him that Wheeler's men had been pillaging Columbia. It turns out that this "well known citizen" was Mr. Alfred Huger of Charleston who was in Columbia in February 1865 with his family. In August1866, when he found out about Nichol's article, Huger wrote a response to the editor of the New York World, denying, among other things, that the conversation reported by Nichols ever took place:

THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA

Letter from Hon. Alfred Huger

Charleston, S.C., August 22 [1866]

To the Editor of the World.