Page "William Tecumseh Sherman" Paragraph 68

The severity of the destructive acts by Union troops was significantly greater in South Carolina than in Georgia or North Carolina.

This appears to have been a consequence of the animosity among both Union soldiers and officers to the state that they regarded as the " cockpit of secession ".

One of the most serious accusations against Sherman was that he allowed his troops to burn the city of Columbia.

In 1867, Gen. O. O. Howard, commander of Sherman's 15th Corps, reportedly said, " It is useless to deny that our troops burnt Columbia, for I saw them in the act.

" However, Sherman himself stated that " f I had made up my mind to burn Columbia I would have burnt it with no more feeling than I would a common prairie dog village ; but I did not do it ..." Sherman's official report on the burning placed the blame on Confederate Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton III, who Sherman said had ordered the burning of cotton in the streets.

In his memoirs, Sherman said, " In my official report of this conflagration I distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and confess I did so pointedly to shake the faith of his people in him, for he was in my opinion a braggart and professed to be the special champion of South Carolina.

" Historian James M. McPherson has concluded that: