Page 15 - Town Crier November 2016 Rev C

ISSUE NUMBER 161 NOVEMBER 2016
THE TOWN CRIER

Lincoln’s Advent of Total War
By Bill Hunt

Article No. 22
The following morning of February 19, 1865, General Sherman ordered that all exist-
ing homes of state, city and county elected officials that were not burned along with
the city be sought out and put to the torch. Again, these home locations could best be
found using the aid of the military’s most reliable enablers, the local freed Negros and
or scalawags, who being most familiar, not only with the area, but also of those par-
ticular homes being sought out for destruction. Once located, Sherman’s blue clad
soldiers routed these families from their homes; then systematically looted and burned
them to the ground while on looking family members could do nothing but stand and watch their homes, dreams, and
any hope for a more secure and prosperous future go up in fire, smoke, and ashes.

One among those many homes sought out and burned was that of Columbia’s Mayor T. J. Goodwyn. In so doing,
Sherman dealt the Mayor a double betrayal; first, he had assured the mayor that he would keep the city safe. He did
not; the city was burned to the ground. Then, the day before evacuating his army from the city towards North Caro-
lina, Sherman ordered that the Mayor’s home located out-
side the city in the county, be put to the torch as well. An-
other notable burning was that of Confederate General
Wade Hampton’s plantation home located four miles out-
side the city. This was a second home loss by fire for Gen-
eral Hampton, as his first home went up in flames along
with the rest of the city two days earlier.

In addition to all of the above homes designated for de-
struction was an extra two dozen or so of the largest and
finest homes located just outside the city that had been
commandeered by Sherman’s Lt. Commanders to serve as
temporary strategic command positions. All of these fabu-
lous homes were also ordered to be put to the torch upon
Photo = The Old Sheldon Church ruins in Beaufort County, their departure the following day.
near Yemassee SC
On February 20,1865, just moments prior to Sherman’s
departure from the destroyed city of Columbia, a dignified but defiant lady of the city, approached Sherman giving
him a piece of her mind as to what she thought of his burning, without justification of cause, an already conquered,
unresisting, and surrendered city. With a sense of anger Sherman’s response was, “Madam, you should be grateful that
I have not also destroyed what little is now left of your city as well. I realize you have suffered much already, but if I
have to come back again….” Leaving his threat unfinished, Sherman mounts his horse. Then giving the order to
march, Sherman and his army depart Columbia leaving behind them yet another major southern city smoldering in a
total state of ruin.

In his route towards North Carolina, Sherman’s carnival of total destruction is renewed with a vengeance. Even in
view of meeting noticeably heavier and more effective Confederate resistance, Sherman using the destructive exper-
tise of his Union Calvary General called Barnwell “Burnwell”, the destruction wrought was greater than even that of
any tornado, for he used fire not wind and covered a much larger space of the countryside; in some cases burning
whole towns and communities to the ground. However, upon crossing the state line into Fayetteville N. C. on
March 11, 1865 and destroying a state arsenal there, Sherman calls for a secession of all the burning and wonton de-
struction of homes and personal property within the state. He also ordered that any and all provisions confiscated be
paid for with U. S. greenback dollars. Sherman’s change of heart and rationale was that, “After all it was not the peo-
ple of North Carolina who were responsible for starting this war, but rather it was those people of South Carolina who
are guilty of committing the unpardonable sins of both secession and ‘Civil War’.” To be continued next edi-

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