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
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John C. Rigdon | |||||
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