"As to trade matters, I also think it is to our interest to keep the Southern people somewhat dependent on the articles of commerce to which they have hitherto been accustomed. General Grover is now here, and will, I think, be able to handle this matter judiciously, and may gradually relax, and invite cotton to come in in large quantities. But at first we should manifest no undue anxiety on that score, for the rebels would at once make use of it as a power against us. We should assume a tone of perfect contempt for cotton and everything else in comparison with the great object of the war—the restoration of the Union, with all its right and power. If the rebels burn cotton as a war measure, they simply play into our hands by taking away the only product of value they have to exchange in foreign ports for war-ships and munition. By such a course, also, they alienate the feelings of a large class of small farmers, who look to their little parcels of cotton to exchange for food and clothing for their families."
Early in January the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, visited Sherman at Savannah and spent several days with him there. They discussed together many important topics, such as the disposition of the cotton, treatment of the negroes, etc. The future of the war was also carefully considered, and Sherman had much correspondence with Grant and Halleck on the same subject. Sherman's own idea was that the rebels should be thoroughly whipped and their pride broken. He would march to the innermost recesses of their country and strike terror to every disloyal heart. Toward the negroes his attitude was kindly, and he favored enlisting them in the army and forming black regiments and brigades.
And now the march Northward, to effect a junction with the army of the Potomac and end of the war by capturing both Lee and Johnston, was begun. It was Sherman himself who planned this Northward march through the Carolinas, and it was not without opposition that he did so. Grant wanted him to come on at once to Virginia by sea, and Sherman at first desired it. But a few days later he wrote to Grant that he wanted to march thither by land, by the way of Columbia, S. C., and Raleigh, N. C. "You know," he said, "how much better troops arrive by a land march than when carried by transports.... This march is necessary to the war. It must be made sooner or later, and I am in the proper position for it. I ask no re-enforcement, but simply with the utmost activity at all other points, so that the enemy may not concentrate too powerfully against me. I expect Davis will move heaven and earth to resist me, for the success of my army is fatal to his dream of empire." Grant finally consented to the march, to Sherman's delight, and by January 15 the army was ready to move Northward.
First, Howard led the right wing, all but Corse's Division, by water to Beaufort and thence to Pocataligo, half way to Charleston, and after a sharp engagement, established a sub-depot there, with easy water connection with Beaufort and Hilton Head. Slocum, with the left wing, Corse's Division, and Kilpatrick, with the cavalry, went up the Savannah and via Sistus Ferry to Robertsville, S. C., some miles further inland. On January 18 Sherman turned the command at Savannah over to General Foster, and then went up to join Howard.
Floods delayed Slocum and his army, but on February 1 Howard moved forward. On February 3 he crossed the Salkehatchie, marching for three miles in bitter cold weather through water from two to three feet deep, while rain was falling in torrents. The Edisto was next crossed and the whole army pushed on rapidly. Kilpatrick's cavalry, meanwhile, made various raids and had some skirmishing with Wheeler. Sherman pursued his old policy of directing no wilful damage to private property, but the rumor got abroad that he was pillaging and burning houses everywhere. So Wheeler presently wrote to him saying that unless he stopped burning houses, he, Wheeler, would burn all the cotton in the country. Sherman replied:
"I hope you will burn all the cotton, and save us the trouble. We don't want it. It has been a curse to our country. All you don't burn I will. As to private houses occupied by peaceful families my orders are not to molest or disturb them, and I think my orders are obeyed. Vacant houses, being of no use to anybody, I care little about, as the owners have thought them of little use to themselves; I don't wish to have them destroyed, but do not take much care to preserve them."
Sherman was as familiar with this country as he had been with Northern Georgia, since he had often, years before, come up here on hunting excursions while he was stationed near Charleston. The march was made with great difficulty, however, as floods prevailed in the lowlands and the weather was most inclement. By the middle of February they reached Columbia, and Sherman issued the following orders for the occupation of that city:
"General Howard will cross the Saluda and Broad Rivers as near their mouths as possible, occupy Columbia, destroy the public buildings, railroad property, manufacturing and machine shops, but will spare libraries, asylums, and private dwellings. He will then move to Winnsborough, destroying utterly that section of the railroad. He will also cause all bridges, trestles, water-tanks, and depots on the railroad back to the Wateree to be burned, switches broken, and such other destruction as he can find time to accomplish consistent with proper celerity."
A few cannon shots were fired into Columbia to drive away the lingering rebel troops. Before abandoning the city, the rebels burned the railroad station and fired some long piles of cotton bales. When Sherman and Howard rode into the city they found the ruins of the buildings still smouldering and the cotton still burning. Howard and his troops took possession of the city, and worked vigorously to put out the fires which had been started by the rebels, and spread rapidly by a high wind. At night the wind became furious, and the air was soon filled with sparks and bits of burning cotton. The result was that, despite the utmost efforts of the Union troops, the heart of the city was burned, including several churches and schools and the old State House. Sherman was afterward accused by several writers of having himself deliberately ordered the burning of the city. The falsity of this charge has been abundantly demonstrated. Sherman himself, doubtless with entire justice, threw the responsibility upon the rebel general, Wade Hampton, and his cavalrymen, who were the last to evacuate the city. Said Sherman in his official report:
"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 manifestation 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."