...In anticipation of the occupation of the city, I had made written orders to General Howard
touching the conduct of the troops. These were to destroy, absolutely, all arsenals and public
property not needed for our own use, as well as all railroads, depots, and machinery useful in war
to an enemy, but to spare all dwellings, colleges, schools, asylums, and harmless private property.
I was the first to cross the pontoon bridge, and in company with General Howard rode into the
city. The day was clear, but a perfect tempest of wind was raging. The brigade of Colonel Stone
was already in the city, and was properly posted. Citizens and soldiers were on the streets, and
general good order prevailed. General Wade Hampton, who commanded the Confederate rear
guard of cavalry, had, in anticipation of our capture of Columbia, ordered that all cotton, public
and private, should be moved into the streets and fired, to prevent our making use of it. Bales
were piled everywhere, the rope and bagging cut, and tufts of cotton were blown about in the
wind, lodged in the trees and against houses, so as to resemble a snow storm. Some of these piles
of cotton were burning, especially one in the very heart of the city, near the courthouse, but the
fire was partially subdued by the labor of our soldiers.
During the day the Fifteenth corps passed through Columbia and out on the Camden road. The
Seventeenth did not enter the town at all; and, as I have before stated, the left wing and cavalry
did not come within two miles of the town.
Before one single public building had been fired by order, the smoldering fires, set by Hampton's
order, were rekindled by the wind, and communicated to the buildings around. About dark they
began to spread, and got beyond the control of the brigade on duty within the city. The whole of
Wood's division was brought in, but it was found impossible to check the flames, which, by
midnight, had become unmanageable, and raged until about four a.m., when the wind subsiding,
they were got under control. I was up nearly all night, and saw Generals Howard, Logan, Woods,
and others, laboring to save houses and protect families thus suddenly deprived of shelter, and of
bedding and wearing apparel. I disclaim on the part of my army any agency in this fire, but on the
contrary, claim that we saved what of Columbia remains unconsumed. And without hesitation, I
charge General Wade Hampton with having burned his own city of Columbia, not with a
malicious intent, or as the manifestations of a silly "Roman stoicism," but from folly and want of
sense, in filling it with lint, cotton, and tinder. Our officers and men on duty worked well to
extinguish the flames; but others not on duty, including the officers who had long been imprisoned
there, rescued by us, may have assisted in spreading the fire after it had once begun, and may have
indulged in unconcealed joy to see the ruin of the capital of South Carolina. During the eighteenth
and nineteenth, the arsenal, railroad depots, machine shops, foundries, and other buildings were
properly destroyed by detailed working parties, and the railroad track torn up and destroyed.
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