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03 FEB 1865 - Federal forces reach the Salkahatchie river. “The actual invasion of South Carolina has begun... The well-known sight of columns of black smoke meets our gaze again; this time houses are burning, and South Carolina has commenced to pay an installment, long overdue, on her debt to justice and humanity. With the help of God, we will have principal and interest before we leave her borders. There is a terrible gladness in the realization of so many hopes and wishes. This cowardly traitor state, secure from harm, as she thought, in her central position, with hellish haste dragged her Southern sisters into the caldron of secession. Little did she dream that the hated flag would again wave over her soil; but this bright morning a thousand Union banners are floating in the breeze, and the ground trembles beneath the tramp of thousands of brave Northmen, who know their mission, and will perform it to the end.” 11

05 FEB 1865 - Branchville “The majority of the citizens here are of the same “cracker or sand hill” species we have found so plentiful everywhere we have been. I heard a soldier say to his comrade today the “the whole damned state was not worth the life of our Federal soldiers,” He was about right. We everywhere hear the fear expressed of “Negro equality,” while no one ever expressed a fear of equality with this class of “Southern white trash.” They are lower than the negro in every respect, not excepting general intelligence, culture, and morality. A man not acquainted with this larger population of the South can form an idea of it in their style of living and cleanliness, &c. They are not fit to be kept in the same sty with a well-to- do farmer’s hogs in New England. Once in ten or fifteen miles we find a plantation owned by a “reliable” man, a “first family” who lives in Charleston or Columbia, while every half mile we find a shanty with the poles a foot apart, a stick chimney, three or four half naked children, two or three with nothing but a shirt, but with an incrustation of dirt which entirely conceals the natural color; the mother with her person partially concealed by ragged cotton cloth and dirt combined. If you ask her where her husband is, the reply is “in the Army”... 12

07 FEB 1865 - Blackville “Our foraging parties are now gathering on the north side of the river more material than can be consumed, and large accumulations will be left in the morning... we find more supplies in this country than I feared we might. Chickens, sweet potatoes, fresh pork, and honey and fresh lard, all rewarded the zealous inquiries of our headquarters foragers today.” 13 “Our troops reached the R.R. about 2 P.M. .. There is a Gernam Jew who has a couple hundred bales of cotton and wants protection because he is a foreigner. He asks that his cotton be saved to pay some “beebles” [people] up in New York, who he owes some “little debts.” He will hardly save the cotton. “14 “I visited today the residence of William Gilmore Simms, the South Carolina novelist and author of “Marion” &c. He has evacuated but has left a very ardent secesh family to protect the residence and library for him. He has a fine library. I think it will be saved, but I should have no objection to seeing it burned... many books from his library, bearing his autograph, found their way into camp, and were carried away by the men as mementoes.” 15

11 FEB 1865 - North Fork - Orangeburg “We do so many thing that are wrong in this living off the country in the way we do that I do not like it and I am afraid of retribution...but the army must be fed and the Bummers must feed us,”16

11 FEB 1865 - Battle of Aiken

12 FEB 1865 - Orangeburg “Orangeburg contains about 800 people, and was, before we entered it a fine little place with a fair proportion of churches, small cotton brokers’ establishments, &c &c... If the town had been built on purpose for a bonfire it could not have been bettered. All that could be done was to watch it on the windward side and the outskirts of the town. We occupied the town at 2 P. M. and at four one third or one half of the town was on fire and burning with the greatest rapidity. I think one half of the body of the town was destroyed. The fires was not so extensive as the one in Atlanta, but more grand and beautiful.”17

13 FEB 1865 - Big Beaver Creek “Today has been beautiful, clear and still. From the starting of the column this morning we could trace the tracks of each by the column of smoke from burning buildings, cotton, turpentine mills, pine woods &c. [Along] the line of the XVII A.C. on the R. R. the smoke lifted like a grand curtain here and there, tassled by a more dense column of smoke from a store house of cotton or resin. The columns of smoke which marked Logan’s line of march were more isolated, but in themselves were very dense. Many of these columns were really wonderful. The smoke rising from the pitch fields rolled up in volumes to the sky so impenetrable that not a ray of light could be seen through them. They looked like a dozen cities burning at the same time. I wish I had the power of describing the grandeur of this scene.” 18

15 FEB 1865 - Little Congaree

16 FEB 1865 - Saluda Factory on the Saluda River “A little before midnight last night the enemy opened fire from a battery in position on the north side of the river, firing into the rear of our troops on this side. We had no artillery with which we could silence it and they did considerable damage, killing an officer and several men, and wounding nearly twenry. The fire was very annoying.” 17

17 FEB 1865 - Gen. Hampton evacuates Columbia

18 FEB 1865 - Columbia surrendered to the Federal forces - subsequently burned. “... when the brigade occupied the town the citizens and negroes brought out whiskey in buckets, bottles and in every conceivable manner treated the men to all they would drink. ... The negroes, escaped prisoners, state convicts, and such other people as would all went into the work of pillaging with a will. By this time all parties were willing to assist it on... The negroes piloted the men to the best places for plunder, and both men and negroes by evening were setting fires rapidly... One cannot conceive of anything which would or could make a grander fire than this one, excepting a larger city than Columbia. The city was built entirely of wood, and was in most excellent condition to burn. The space on fire at midnight was not less than one mile square, and one week before, sheltered from 25,000 to 30,000 people. The flames rolled and heaved like the waves of the ocean; the road was like a cataract. The whole air was filled with burning cinders, and fragments of fire as thick as the flakes of snow in a storm. The scene was splendid - magnificently grand. The scene of pillaging, the suffering and terror of the citizens, the arresting of and shooting negroes, and our frantic and drunken soldiers... this I will leave for the present for the imagination of those who choose to dwell upon it... I have in this war seen too much... and choose rather to remember the magnificent splendor of this burning city... I believe the burning of the city is an advantage to the cause and a just retribution to the state of South Carolina. 20

21 FEB 1865 - Winnsboro “Two of our men were found today with their brains beat out, and from all appearances had been captured and then murdered.” 21

23 FEB 1865 - Rocky Mount “General Sherman sends us word again today that the enemy have murdered eleven of Kilpatrick’s men, and the General has also ordered retaliation by killing the same number of rebels now in Kilpatrick’s hands. Kilpatrick reported the incident: “ An infantry lieutenant and seven men murdered yesterday by the 8th Texas Cavalry after they had surrendered. We found their bodies all together and mutilated, with paper on their breasts, saying “Death to foragers.” Eighteen of my men were killed yesterday and some had their throats cut... I have sent Wheeler word that I intend to hang eighteen of his men... I have a number of prisoners and shall take a fearful revenge.” 22 02 MAR 1865 - Cheraw

02 MAR 1865 - Florence “The sufferings which the people will have to undergo will be most intense. We have left on the wide strip of country we have passed over no provisions which will go any distance in supporting the people. We have left no stock by means of which they can get more. All horses, mules and cattle, sheep and hogs have been taken. They cannot go outside of the country traversed for lack of transportation... Even before we came into the State the provisions were vastly greater than we had ever supposed... We have been out on this trip a little longer than before, and made the same distance, and covered the same or a greater breadth of territory, and have again left nothing... I do not think that the Rebel armies will not fight, they will do so whenever an opportunity offers, which affords a hope of success. They still believe their government, their property, their honor, and their Southern pride is at stake, and they will fight for them. “In addition to what is said above of the people, there is one thing they invariably do, no matter how great the cost: they cling to the niggers as the visible proof of their respectability and chivalry and no matter how great the sacrifices they are compelled to make to restore them, they willingly make the sacrifices.23