The Sack And Destruction Of Columbia South Carolina

Author : H. C. McArthur
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331383826
Total Pages : 22 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (838 download)

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Download or read book The Capture and Destruction of Columbia, South Carolina written by H. C. McArthur and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Capture and Destruction of Columbia, South Carolina: February 17, 1865; Personal Experiences and Recollections To Crocker's Iowa Brigade: One of Iowa's boy soldiers from 1861 to 1865, and proud of it, and knowing the keen and patriotic interest always manifested by her citizens in the exploits of her "Boys in Blue," I beg to submit the following narrative of my personal experiences and recollections of the capture and destruction of Columbia, S. C., February 17, 1865. This story of fact is the fulfillment of a promise made years ago to the Fifteenth Iowa and Crocker's brigade comrades. In recent years many of my comrades in Iowa have repeatedly called my attention to accounts in the National Tribune, written by the members of the Thirtieth Iowa Infantry, relating to who was the first to enter and raise the Stars and Stripes in the city of Columbia, S. C., February 17, 1865. I was a member of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, and at that time aide-de-camp on the staff of Brig. Gen. William W. Belknap, commanding Crocker's Iowa Brigade, Seventeenth Corps, and being the person who first suggested the undertaking of crossing the Congaree River in front of the city, and urging the attempt be made, with others successfully accomplishing what we started out to do, namely, raise the first flag over the statehouse of South Carolina, I have a right to speak authoritatively of the enterprise. For several years after the war closed we often heard through the National Tribune accounts of how members of Colonel Stone's Iowa Brigade, Fifteenth Corps, entered the city first and raised their colors on the statehouse. All of these erroneous assertions ceased in 1873, when the claims against the United States for damages of about a million and a half dollars were brought by British subjects before the British Claims Commission for cotton destroyed during the destruction of Columbia. It was then the facts were officially brought out. The Confederate general, Wade Hampton, was the principal prosecuting witness. If it could be proved that any of Sherman's army set fire to the cotton the United States would be liable to the value of the cotton destroyed. General Hampton testified very positively that members of Sherman's army set fire to the cotton. General Sherman did not believe his soldiers fired the cotton. He was not where he could see, yet he believed he was nearer the advance of his army when entering the city than General Hampton was to the rear of his army when leaving it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.