Making South Carolina Pay
As Sherman set foot in South Carolina, his 60,000 hardened veterans were faced with 20,000 Confederates, most of them poorly trained boys and old men. The Union commander saw poetic justice in what was about to happen to the state that had seceded first, and that had been the site of the war’s first shot. It was an attitude shared by his men. As Sherman wrote: “The whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate, but feel that she deserves all that seems in store for her“.
Sherman divided his army into two main wings, both of which went about the tasks of wrecking and burning with a will far exceeding anything exhibited in Georgia. Railroads and other infrastructure deemed of any military value were demolished, and residents went hungry after losing their winter stores to Union foragers. Outright murder and rape were rare, but civilians had their property plundered and their valuables stolen, women were humiliated, and the gratuitous destruction and burning of homes – particularly those of the well to do planters – was widespread.
An obvious target for the Yankees’ wrath was Charleston, site of the Fort Sumter bombardment that had kicked off the war. Sherman feinted with his right wing towards Charleston, while feinting with the left towards Augusta, the site of important arms and munitions factories. That juked the Confederate defenders under general P.G.T. Beauregard into concentrating at Charleston and Augusta. Once that was accomplished, Sherman brought his wings back together, and marched straight north to the state’s capitol, Columbia.
Columbia was protected by natural barriers of swamps and rivers, and the roads leading to the city, inundated by heavy winter rains, were thought to be impassable. Sherman’s men took the obstacles in stride, throwing pontoon bridges across rivers and creeks, wading through swamps, and felling trees by the thousands for logs with which to corduroy the muddy roads. They averaged a dozen miles a day, leading an awed Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston to remark that “there had been no such army in existence since the days of Julius Caesar“.
Sherman captured Columbia on February 17th, and that night, the city went up in flames, in a conflagration that destroyed its center. The burning of Columbia has been a controversial whodunit ever since. Southerners naturally blamed Sherman, but he cast the blame on the city’s defenders for having left burning cotton bales in the streets when they left, a wind that fanned the flames, and the locals who foolishly gave his troops alcohol. While declining responsibility, Sherman made it clear then and thereafter that he felt little sympathy for the city’s fate. Columbia was not the only South Carolinian town put to the torch along Sherman’s path – just the biggest one. Towns such as Orangeburg, Barnwell, and sundry smaller communities, also suffered, as the war came to South Carolina with a vengeance. The army’s rough hand did not soften until it crossed into North Carolina, at which point Sherman ordered his men to treat it less vindictively than they had treated the “lair of secession”.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
American Battlefield Trust – William T. Sherman
Catton, Bruce – This Hallowed Ground (1956)
Chicago Daily Herald, November 15th, 2014 – South Will Never Forget Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’
Foote, Shelby – The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3, Red River to Appomattox (1974)
Smithsonian – 3 Surprising Facts About Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman
South Carolina Encyclopedia – Sherman’s March, February 1, 1865 – March, 1865
Wikipedia – Campaign of the Carolinas
William Tecumseh Sherman – Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (1990 ed.)