♪ >> ♪ And all the tears wept a-through the years ♪ ♪ by the dyin' Rebel lads ♪ ♪ couldn't quencher the fire of hate ♪ ♪ in the heart of that single Yankee man.

♪ ♪ Demons danced... Satan pranced.

♪ ♪ They say Sherman was his naaaa...ame.

♪ ♪ The night the devil fiddled in South Carolina, ♪ ♪ ♪ while Columbia went up in flaaames.... ♪♪ ♪ [acoustic guitar music continues] ♪ >> The march to the sea is an implementation of this idea... carry out warfare not only on enemy armies and logistical centers like Atlanta, but also widen it, a total war to embrace the civilian population.

>> That no one, nothing would be spared, um... which included property, which included slaves, that kind of property, that he... would no longer, essentially, restrain his soldiers to the extent that he had done before from pillaging and destroying private property, because he didn't think that Southerners would, in any other way, be convinced to give up this war.

>> Troops could exist in the field for periods of time after breaking their supply line.

It was his idea that he could... gut Georgia, basically.

And his idea-- as it had been through most of the north Georgia and Atlanta campaign-- his idea was to avoid major battles and to deprive... the South of its major remaining breadbasket.

>> Sherman's march, um... tied down troops that could have been used in other theaters.

I think that had Lee been able to reinforce himself from some of the western armies, he would have fared much better against Grant.

By Sherman's creating that second front, actually coming down into Georgia, he tied up troops that Lee would've been able to use and shortened the war quite a deal.

>> It brought war home to the civilian population in a way they had not imagined.

(female narrator) In the summer of 1863, Chattanooga, Tennessee, fell into Union hands.

In May 1864, 44-year-old Union General William Tecumseh Sherman moved his army of 100,000 men into north Georgia.

His goal was to capture the vital railroad, supply, and manufacturing city of the Confederacy... Atlanta.

Although Sherman faced an enemy with only half the manpower he enjoyed, there was an urgency to capture Atlanta before the November presidential election.

Abraham Lincoln, running for a second term, needed to show a tiring public the war could be won.

Sherman knew that if he did not capture Atlanta by the election, Lincoln would probably lose it.

Dennis> The North is in the process of winning the Civil War, but it seems more clear to us as historians than those who lived through those times.

The Mississippi head river had been opened up, and the South is split in two, but still the Confederacy's field armies are strong and powerful-- with Lee's army in Virginia, the army of Tennessee here in Georgia-- and these had to be knocked off, eliminated, by the Federal forces.

On both sides, there is great weariness with the war.

There's been bread riots in Richmond, Virginia... lack of sustenance there.

There's been draft riots in New York City, the immigrant riots up there.

So the war is, uh... its popularity is long gone.

narrator> At the north Georgia town of Resaca, the townspeople got their first view of what Sherman and his soldiers were going to do.

as they drove into the heart of the confederacy.

David> The towns, which-- some of which had been right pleasant little towns, railway stations on the way into Tennessee-- after both the Confederate and Northern armies withdrew, there was little left both in the way of population, which had fled, or in the way of buildings and surviving improvements.

They just basically stripped the places.

narrator> Sherman enjoyed a string of victories as he pressed toward Atlanta.

Earlier in his military career, Sherman had been stationed in Georgia.

His knowledge of the rugged terrain gave him an additional advantage over his Confederate foes.

[acoustic guitar music] ♪ ♪ Twenty miles northwest of Atlanta lies Kennesaw Mountain.

Confederates were entrenched on the peak and along lines northeast and southwest of the mountain.

Part of Sherman's success had been to use flanking movements around the enemy instead of frontal assaults.

But after failing in his first flanking movement at Kennesaw, Sherman decided to go for a direct attack.

The battle for Kennesaw Mountain had begun.

(man shouting) Blast!

[cannon booms] Blast!

[cannon booms] Blast!

[cannon booms] Blast!

[cannon booms] Blast!

[cannon booms] Blast!

[cannon booms] Dennis> So on the 27th of June, following an artillery bombardment, he...directly attacks the Confederate front.

Now, there were feints, demonstrations, deceptions on either flank, hoping that the Confederates would weaken their center where he would strike, but this did not happen.

He attacks the Confederate strength.

The Confederates are strongly dug in, and Sherman winds up taking a bloody nose here at Kennesaw Mountain.

Now, Kennesaw Mountain was the last time that Sherman directly attacked the enemy.

In his maneuvers after Kennesaw Mountain, he preferred to indirectly make his approach to Atlanta.

narrator> Sherman continued his march to Atlanta, but soon found his troops in a stalemate with the rebels outside the city.

Seeing the Confederates with well-fortified positions and not wanting a frontal attack, Sherman ordered another flanking assault toward the town of Jonesboro, southwest of Atlanta.

Sherman hoped to cut the railroad there and disrupt the Confederates' supply line to Atlanta.

This maneuver was successful, and with their supply line cut, the Confederates had to evacuate the city.

On September 2, 1864, Atlanta fell into the hands of Sherman.

President Lincoln had his significant breakthrough.

Once inside Atlanta, Sherman corresponded with General Ulysses S. Grant, himself locked in battle with General Robert E. Lee in Virginia.

Grant wanted Sherman and his men to head north to help him defeat Lee.

Sherman had other plans.

David> Whereas there would have been a benefit if Sherman had linked up with Grant, Grant and Sherman both, as well as Lincoln, had the idea that you needed to keep the Confederate armies from massing, or concentrating.

At the time, everyone still thought in terms of Napoleonic tactics, and you had to concentrate your forces and prevent the concentration of the opponent's forces.

Kip> Well, originally, Grant wanted Sherman to start his march in that direction to join forces.

Sherman pushed real hard with the emphasis of cutting into the South and actually making them pay, in particular South Carolina.

He knew once he got to Savannah, he would be open to the heartland of South Carolina.

He pushed real hard to continue that march to the sea.

narrator> Following two months in Atlanta, Sherman began his march to the sea.

In Atlanta, Sherman had planned his 270-mile march to the Georgia coast.

Dr. Edgar> He's making the conscious decision to live off the land, to take whatever he wants in terms of food.

Now, looting and destroying, uh... unfortunately are age-old, uh... habits of a conquering army.

narrator> On November 16, 1864, Sherman's army departed Atlanta, but not before burning the city, destroying 80% of its buildings.

Dennis> Now, according to the Army Regulations, Field Orders 100, it's illegal to burn a city, enemy occupation.

But when Sherman captured Atlanta, he banished all the civilian population and the government from Atlanta.

Therefore, that turns Atlanta into a military post, property of the United States government.

So...remember, Atlanta was burned twice, first when the Confederates evacuated the city.

Then when Sherman begins his march to the sea on the 16th of November, he doesn't really burn the city of Atlanta... he burns his own military base, which is perfectly legal.

narrator> Setting out with 60,000 men, Sherman split his soldiers and sent them along different paths to confuse the enemy.

The Confederates were not sure if Union soldiers were threatening Macon to the west or Augusta to the east.

What meager forces the South had in the area never formed into a concise unit.

Dr. Edgar> In terms of military historians, Sherman's campaign is considered quite a major feat.

He was operating... hundreds of miles behind enemy lines and operating successfully.

Um....

He wasn't faced-- facing an army equivalent to his own, but he was operating in hostile territory.

Kip> Yes, there was a lot of burning.

There was a lot of looting.

Both sides tended to have some degree of that, but it's evident that Sherman's men had no regard for the Southern countryside on their march out of Atlanta, as evident by the 60-wide-mile swath of destruction they left on their way to Savannah.

narrator> During his push to the sea, Sherman faced a growing problem.

Slaves were following the march, believing soldiers were leading them to freedom.

Sherman saw the slaves as slowing down the progress of his men.

Thavolvia> Sherman was not at all eager that these slaves, or emancipated slaves, continue to follow him, and neither were many officers under his command, so many slaves, as a result, were drowned in the swamps because as the pontoon bridges were cut when the rear of Sherman's army crossed them, slaves were unable to forge the swamps or the rivers.

It's estimated that out of 25,000 that followed him across Georgia, by the time he got to Savannah, there were only about 7,000 remaining with his armies.

It was a problem that many Union generals and armies faced in the South.

narrator> Slavery was not what fed Sherman's hatred of the Confederacy.

It was the secession from the Union.

Dr. Edgar> Sherman, like many, ...White Americans of his day, was not opposed to the institution of slavery.

Many Northern Whites were not opposed to slavery.

Sherman, of course, during his military career, had been stationed in the South.

He had been president of what eventually would become LSU.

So he had a lot of knowledge and experience in the South.

What angered him, as an American, was the dissolution of the Union, was secession.

narrator> Sherman's march was having far-reaching implications.

Wives of soldiers stationed with General Lee's army in Virginia were writing their husbands about the punishment the Union soldiers were inflicting upon the land.

Dennis> All of these Southern wives down here are writing to their husbands up there in Lee's army that they need protection.

And there was great desertion on the part of the Georgia soldiers in Lee's army by this influence... wives telling husbands, sons, and so forth, to come home and defend them.

narrator> It was now clear to Confederates that Sherman's objective was Savannah, but they did not know how badly Sherman needed to reach Union ships off the coast.

>> Since they didn't have a supply line coming from Atlanta, they were living off the land, and 60,000 men eat a lot.

As long as they were moving through the interior of the state that food kept coming in.

Once they arrived at Savannah, the troops stopped moving, and there was no fresh territory to move into.

As a result, food stopped coming in.

narrator> Savannah in 1864 was a picturesque Southern port.

The city's population had survived the war-long Union naval blockade.

There were only 10,000 Confederate troops to defend Savannah, but despite being greatly outnumbered, they had entrenched themselves around the city.

Not wanting to attack the Rebel fortifications, Sherman probed for weaknesses in the Southern defenses.

The Ogeechee River just south of Savannah is where Sherman hoped to link up with the Union ships.

However, his objective was blocked by the Confederate Fort McAllister, located on the south side of the river.

The Confederate battery, built in the summer of 1861, weathered several naval attacks during the war and was never successfully neutralized.

Now the fort blocked Sherman from reaching his navy and reestablishing communications with Washington and General Grant.

Sherman knew a land assault would be necessary to capture the fort.

At this location, Sherman and some of his soldiers had come to see how heavily armed a battery stationed down the railroad tracks was.

Looking at the Confederate parapet, Sherman saw its cannon fire and the ball come straight at him.

Sherman got out of its way.

The incoming ball struck the ground in front of an unsuspecting man, bounced, and hit the man in the jaw, instantly killing him.

Sherman beat a hasty retreat.

Surveying the area further, Sherman's troops found a series of creeks, flooded rice fields, and acres of swamps.

Confederate batteries dotted the watery terrain.

A frontal assault seemed impossible.

With food for his men now running low, Sherman had to knock out Fort McAllister.

On December 13, 1864, about 4,000 of Sherman's men stormed the fort.

The first wave of men were blown away when they hit land mines buried outside the structure.

Soon the superior numbers of Sherman's troops, against the fort's 250 soldiers, overwhelmed the resistance.

With Fort McAllister in Union hands, Sherman was able to make contact with the Navy, opening up a supply and communication line.

Roger> The primary significance of it was that it removed the last obstacle of Sherman reaching the outside world and reestablishing a line of supplies to feed his troops.

narrator> The Confederates knew they had to evacuate the city, and on December 20, 1864, rebel troops crossed the Savannah River into South Carolina.

The following day, Sherman's troops marched in.

The Union general had reached the sea, and on December 22 presented Savannah as a Christmas gift to President Lincoln.

While in the port city, Sherman decided to solve the problem of slaves following his troops by issuing a special field order.

Thavolvia> That field order set aside the territory 30 miles inland from the South Carolina Sea Islands downward, southward to Georgia, for the settlement of slaves.

And... with this territory, slaves were to be given no more per family than 40 acres of land.

Sherman hoped, in this way, to accomplish two things... to address concerns expressed by Blacks in the Sea Islands and, secondly, to remove this encumbrance from his army.

But as he later found out, slaves would continue to follow him, especially as he moves into South Carolina.

narrator> In mid-January 1865, Sherman's army departed Savannah and entered South Carolina.

Roger> Savannah was spared... primarily because there was no real need to destroy it.

Confederate defenses were far enough outside of the city that Sherman's artillery couldn't reach it, and the city was evacuated before heavy artillery could be brought in.

Savannah was also the oldest city many of Sherman's men had seen, and a lot of them were very taken with it.

narrator> As in Georgia, Sherman moved in different directions in the lower part of South Carolina.

The Confederates did not know what his destination was.

They thought it could be Charleston, Augusta, or, as a long shot, Columbia.

One thing the Rebels did know... Sherman was in the heart of the state's swamplands.

Many a Confederate soldier thought to himself that there would be no way Sherman could march an army through that.

But Yankee troops made progress, and in early February, they entered the Salkehatchie Swamp.

The area today looks much as it did when Sherman came through.

In addition to unfavorable terrain, the Northern troops also faced one of the worst winters in the state's history.

David> It was a period of tremendous rainfall.

It was cold.

It was rainy and wet.

There are accounts of staff officers looking for generals while they were in the Salkehatchie Swamp and finding the generals and their staffs perched in trees, like roosting turkeys, to get up out of the water.

There were people that had to sleep in standing water.

It was a real... a real difficult campaign.

Roads had to be corduroyed... in other words, felling trees and laying them side to side so that you ride over the logs in order to get what wagons Sherman had along the road.

They had entire brigades of pioneers out in front of the soldiers felling thousands of trees per day and corduroying as much as 10 and 12 miles per day of road in order that the armies could move.

It was a hard campaign, in the sense of creature comfort.

It was not a hard campaign from the Northern standpoint, in view of the lack of... military engagements.

narrator> That would soon change.

Crossing the Salkehatchie River, the Union soldiers entered an area known as Rivers Bridge.

Two thousand Rebel soldiers awaited their arrival.

Kip> Rivers Bridge was one of three crossings, uh... that led across the Salkehatchie Swamp.

There was a series of bridges and causeways that led up to the actual Rivers Bridge breastworks that are still there today.

The Confederate forces manned those breastworks in an attempt to stop Sherman's march into South Carolina.

He originally went south of these works to another area called Broxton's Bridge where the Confederates had also fortified.

In reading reports from some of his officers, they felt it was suicide to try to go against these breastworks, they were so well maintained.

They came to Rivers Bridge.

They attempted a crossing there.

A battle of several days ensued, after which the Confederate forces realized that, one, they were not only outnumbered, but they were being outflanked on both flanks.

They fired massive volleys of cannon and rifle fire to put out dense amounts of smoke, and in that noise and confusion and smoke, they withdrew their forces and left the Rivers Bridge area.

Um...in terms of battle casualties, it was a very small engagement.

In terms of the morale booster for South Carolina, it was probably one of the best.

[rifle and cannon fire crackling and booming] [rifle and cannon fire crackling and booming] [bugle tooting, sounds of battle] [shouting, sounds of battle] [rifle and cannon fire crackling and booming] [sounds of battle continue] [gunfire] [sounds of battle continue] [gunfire] [sounds of battle continue] [gunfire] [sounds of battle continue] [gunfire] [sounds of battle continue] [gunfire] [sounds of battle continue] [gunfire] [sounds of battle continue] narrator> Though the Confederates lost the Battle of Rivers Bridge, they took solace in the fact they did delay Sherman, even if only for a couple of days.

Kip> It was the only organized...defense, or the first organized defense, of the state of South Carolina once Sherman came out of Savannah to show that a small force of some 1500 Confederates could hold Sherman's entire army at bay for a period of several days showed there was still a will amongst the average soldier to get out and defend his homeland.

narrator> Following Rivers Bridge, Sherman emerged from the swamps.

Dennis> I think Sherman said it in his autobiography, that his... his greatest achievement was not the capture of the city of Atlanta or even the march to the sea.

It was the movement across South Carolina, how he had moved his entire army through the frozen swamps in the winter of the January of 1865, marching northward across South Carolina.

By and large, people said it couldn't be done.

Sherman did it, and he believed that was his greatest achievement as a soldier.

narrator> Georgia had suffered over $100 million dollars in property damage at the hands of Sherman's soldiers, and the general's troops showed even more fury in their destructive march through the Palmetto State.

David> There were other commanders within his army that were more plainspoken about their opinions on what ought to be done... one of them being Judson Kilpatrick.

He jokingly wrote Sherman after having left Barnwell that the residents were going to have to "rename it Burnwell."

♪ [acoustic guitar music] ♪ (male singer) ♪ We waited by the river, ♪ ♪ with rifles in our hands.

♪ ♪ A handful of the South's best and last, ♪ ♪ ready to make a stand.

♪ ♪ I turned to Billy Bratton, ♪ ♪ said, "Jesus, look at 'em come!"

♪ ♪ The long blue lines with sabers drawn, ♪ ♪ a-glitterin' in the sun.

♪ ♪ Billy chewed and spat and smiled, ♪ ♪ said, "Johnny, I tell you true, ♪ ♪ "afore this day's gone, there'll be hell to pay ♪ ♪ at the hands of them boys in blue."

♪ ♪ And all the tears wept a-through the years ♪ ♪ by the dyin' Rebel lads ♪ ♪ couldn't quencher the fire of hate ♪ ♪ in the heart of that single Yankee man.

♪♪ narrator> By 1865, both sides in the War Between the States had been fighting each other for almost 4 years.

For Confederates, a complete uniform was a rarity.

Kip> Confederate soldiers of that time were, uh... although they were fairly ragged, we don't want to dress them or have them dressed in the completely ragged uniforms.

They were wearing a lot of homespun articles, a lot of things they were able to get from home.

A lot of the troops that were at Rivers Bridge were South Carolina Militia/ home guard units... more or less civilians armed to defend South Carolina.

They wore civilian attire, pretty much anything they could get their hands on.

There were Confederate-issue uniforms amongst the ranks.

A lot of officers were also in uniform.

narrator> For soldiers of Sherman's army, the clothing situation was surprisingly similar to that of the Southerners.

The Federals... you would think would be much better dressed, because they had the Northern Army, the whole North, supplying them with their wares.

However, in their march to Savannah, they far outdistanced their supply wagons, and the Northern troops were fairly ragged when they got to Savannah.

Once they arrived there, they were re-supplied by sea.

They did have much better uniforms and equipment on than their counterparts in the Confederate Army.

Of course, they were fairly well equipped, even though they had come through the Salkehatchie Swamp.

narrator> Although the clothing of both armies was in similar, sad condition, the same could not be said for the thoughts of the Confederate and Union soldiers.

In the winter of 1865, Sherman's army was deep inside Southern territory, while the Confederates felt themselves running out of land and time.

Kip> I would have to say that the Federal troops were probably feeling a little high at that point.

They knew the war was getting close to over.

They were proceeding into the state of South Carolina, one of the last states that needed to be gone into and cleaned out of the Rebel scum.

They could smell the end of the war.

On the other hand, the Confederates also knew that the end was near, but it was a different kind of meaning for them.

They would be the conquered... they would be the vanquished.

As a result, they knew they were going to suffer harshly at the hands of their captors.

♪ [acoustic guitar music] ♪ ♪ We hid there in them tall pine trees, ♪ ♪ breathin' soft and still.

♪ ♪ Columbia town stood tall and proud ♪ ♪ just over behind the hill.

♪ ♪ I looked across at Billy ♪ ♪ through the green leaves streaked with light.

♪♪ narrator> As Sherman continued his push into South Carolina, it became clear to his enemy what his next major destination was... Columbia, a city ill-prepared for an invading army.

David> This city was pretty well doomed.

Again, they should have had a plan for the defense of Columbia, but that's the big downfalling.

There was no central plan made for the defense of South Carolina, and there were no adequate troops to execute such a plan.

narrator> Officials in South Carolina called on General Lee, still tied down by General Grant's army in Virginia, to provide soldiers for the defense of Columbia.

(Edgar) Lee's response is, Does the governor of South Carolina wish to have Generals Sherman and Grant in South Carolina at the same time?

Lee's army was the only one that might have been able to do something with Sherman, and I'm not sure that even Lee's veterans could have hurried south and then defended South Carolina or Georgia against Sherman's, by this time, veteran army of 60,000.

[poignant bluegrass music] ♪ ♪ >> From the Confederate standpoint, Confederate troops were terribly demoralized.

This is true not only of the common, rank-and-file private or corporal, but also of the command.

The command, in many regards, had frankly given up.

Beauregard thought that South Carolina was indefensible.

He was more interested in, uh... the West, the Trans-Mississippi.

He was detailed to come back to South Carolina.

He had been briefly absent from South Carolina and was ordered to come back in early February.

He pretty well threw up his hands and didn't have any idea which way Sherman was heading.

As late as the 9th, 10th, 11th of February, he had no idea whether Columbia was the target or not.

And that idea of, uh... confusion, lack of purpose, demoralization, futility just permeated not only the command, but everybody right down to the lowest private, and the civilians felt it too.

They felt that they were not being defended.

The troops were inadequate.

The supplies, although here, couldn't even be defended.

Many supplies had to be dumped into the river here in Columbia and elsewhere.

So it was confusion and demoralization on the South's side and almost celebration and joviality on the Northern side because they could see light at the end of the tunnel.

narrator> Sherman's troops were just west of Columbia, with some soldiers stationed along the southern shore of the Saluda River.

As the soldiers entered this section, they had come upon the Saluda River Factory and promptly burned it.

The ruins of the building are still evident.

[contemporary instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Heading downstream, the soldiers came upon a bridge that retreating Confederates had burned.

A pontoon bridge was constructed at the site, and Sherman's men crossed the Saluda River at the present-day location of Riverbanks Zoo.

From there, they crossed the Broad River near the area of the I-126 bridge.

Sherman was at Columbia's doorstep, and it was a place for which he had a great hatred.

In Sherman's eyes, Columbia was not an innocent city.

Dr. Edgar> Columbia, in terms of the Confederacy, was a very important, um...town.

Not only was it a railroad center-- railroads from the coast and from the south and west came through Columbia-- but Columbia was a production center for the Confederacy.

Munitions were produced here.

The Saluda Factory produced blankets and cloth for the Confederacy.

The Confederate printing plant, down on the corner of Gervais and Huger Streets, was producing Confederate currency--bills and bonds-- for the Confederacy after 1863.

Although the bills might say Richmond, they were printed here in Columbia.

If you look at pre-1865 maps of Main Street, it seems like scarcely a block of Main Street between the capitol and 6 or 8 blocks down didn't have some kind of Confederate office located in it.

So Columbia was a major production center, support center for the Confederate war effort.

>> What Sherman would say over and over again, particularly after, um... he came to Columbia, um... and as various citizens of the city came to him and, um... addressed questions or issues relating to loss of property, he would say over and over again, "You brought this on yourself," because by 1865, he was certainly convinced that the... entire Southern population had to take responsibility for the war.

narrator> South Carolina had been the first state to break from the Union, and the first secession convention met here at First Baptist Church.

[poignant bluegrass music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ This is the west side of the Statehouse.

Stars mark where Union artillery hit the unfinished building.

[indistinct shout followed by cannon boom] [shout and cannon boom repeats] [third shout and cannon boom] [fourth shout and cannon boom] [fifth shout and cannon boom] [sixth shout and cannon boom] [seventh shout and cannon boom] [eighth shout and cannon boom] [ninth shout and cannon boom] [tenth shout and cannon boom] narrator> As shells fell upon the capital, Sherman could see a city in chaos.

Dr. Edgar> Law and order broke down 24 hours earlier.

Looters broke into stores on Main Street, including unfortunately members of Wheeler's cavalry before they left.

That was Confederate cavalry who broke into stores on Main Street.

Looters down in the railroad depots are breaking into warehouses and set off munitions and blow themselves to kingdom come.

Anybody who can get aboard a train is getting aboard a train, um... and it's one of those crazy things.

State records are being put on board... but wounded Confederate soldiers are not.

People who have money are trying to bribe their way on board.

All of the veneer of civilization has almost totally disappeared from Columbia.

It's every man and woman for himself, just about.

David> There were fires that had been burning in Columbia at the time.

Cotton had been set afire.

Certain warehouses were just stocked full of cotton, and those bales had been pulled out in the street.

This was the South's most important, expensive commodity.

They were destroying it so it couldn't fall into Northern hands.

He probably saw a lot of smoke, panicked civilians, and the effect of, uh... artillery fire.

narrator> On February 17, 1865, at the intersection of present-day Beaufort Street and River Drive, city officials surrendered Columbia.

As Union soldiers entered the city, they saw burning cotton bales in the streets that had been set afire the night before by the departing Rebels.

Sherman's men rushed the Statehouse to plant the United States flag on top of the building.

All along the grounds, the soldiers destroyed construction supplies, and they gutted the interior of the structure.

This monument, located today on the west grounds, of the statehouse had some of its leaves knocked off by the soldiers.

Other damage still evident is the cane of the George Washington statue in front of the Statehouse.

Sherman's men broke it in half.

Dr. Edgar> When Sherman entered the city, there was a fierce wind blowing.

Um....

It was a very gusty February day, and there are reports-- in fact, there is an old engraving from one of the newsmagazines of the day showing the trees.

The trees look like, it looks like a snowstorm.

This is supposed to represent the cotton that was floating around.

The wind continued to blow very fiercely.

In fact, it picked up about dusk, and until about 3:00 in the morning on February 18, 1865, the wind was rather ferocious.

Once the city did catch fire, the fire was spread very rapidly by burning debris that was just blown all over town.

Thavolvia> Then the situation got completely out of hand.

Sherman gave orders at various points to commanders to assist in putting out the fires, but then there were soldiers everywhere who were helping to start more fire.

[fire crackling and wind whistling] [fire crackling and wind whistling] [fire crackling and wind whistling] [fire crackling and wind whistling] [fire crackling and wind whistling] [fire crackling and wind whistling] narrator> By the time the fire was put out, one third of Columbia lay in ruins.

Every building on both sides of Main Street from Elmwood Avenue to Gervais Street was severely damaged or totally destroyed.

David> So if it was a factory or a mill, a train station, anything of that sort, a government building, a courthouse... if it was a government building or if it was a civilian or privately-owned building which could render something of use to the Confederate war effort, it was regarded as, um... dispensable and should be destroyed.

narrator> As the population came to Sherman to ask for assistance, he was not sympathetic to their needs.

Dr. Edgar> Some Columbians, thinking to pacify their conquerors, broke into the Confederate warehouses and brought out the supplies of medicinal whiskey.

Now, we're not talking about 80-proof stuff.

We're talking about good, old-fashioned corn liquor that would take the paint off the side of a house.

And they ladled this out to incoming Union soldiers, many of whom had not slept for 48 hours, most of whom had not eaten for 48 hours.

So you've got young soldiers on empty stomachs being given 100-proof-plus whiskey, and it's no wonder that within a few hours they were a drunken...mob.

narrator> Sherman and his troops departed Columbia less than 48 hours after their arrival.

Photos taken after the fire show the magnitude of the destruction.

Comparing the pictures with scenes of today, one can truly say that Columbia grew up and out of the ashes.

[acoustic guitar music] ♪ ♪ Rifle balls came buzzin' hot ♪ ♪ through the bushes and tall pine trees, ♪ ♪ like the skeeters on a hot summer night ♪ ♪ when there ain't no trace of a breeze.

♪ ♪ Back and forth, brave Hampton rode, ♪ ♪ sayin', "Boys, you got to hold them lines."

♪ ♪ "You mean ours or theirs?"

Billy grinned, ♪ ♪ as we fell back through the pines.

♪ ♪ I heard a rebel yell become a brave lad's dyin' screams.

♪ ♪ Billy clutched his chest, grabbed my arm, ♪ ♪ and fell down on his kneeeeeesss.... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The faces lit by a bright orange glow ♪ ♪ that filled the empty sky.

♪ ♪ That night I held poor Billy close.

♪ ♪ He whispered as he died, ♪ ♪ "We was with Longstreet at Antietam Creek, ♪ ♪ "rode to hell and back with Hood.

♪ ♪ "Never dreamed I'd see the Congaree ♪ ♪ "run red with Bratton blood.

♪ ♪ "Thirty miles away in Camden town, ♪ ♪ my Lucy waits alone."

♪ ♪ As he died, he chewed and spat and smiled ♪ ♪ and said... ♪ [without guitar music] "Lord...I was almost...home."

[no audio] ♪ And all the tears wept a-through the years ♪ ♪ by the dyin' Rebel lads ♪ ♪ couldn't quencher the fire of hate ♪ ♪ in the heart of that single Yankee man.

♪ ♪ Demons danced... Satan pranced.

♪ ♪ They say Sherman was his naaaa...ame.

♪ ♪ The night the devil fiddled in South Carolina, ♪ ♪ while Columbia went up in flaaames.... ♪♪ ♪ Dr. Edgar> In fact, I think one of the most gripping stories is that of Dr. Robert Wilson Gibbes, whose house was up on Taylor Street.

About midnight, somebody broke into his house, a drunken Union soldier, and said, "A blue belly and a sulfur match are unwelcome guests on a dark and windy night," proceeded to rough him up and set fire to his house.

This happened on other occasions.

There are firsthand accounts of it.

There are also firsthand accounts of Union soldiers protecting civilian property, and, for example, the University of South Carolina survived because Union soldiers got up on the roofs and, along with the university faculty, helped keep the roofs from going up.

narrator> A question which still evokes a wide range of debate is, Who was responsible for the burning of Columbia?

>> If you read accounts from Southerners, they point the finger at the Federal Army.

If you read accounts from Sherman's officers, they say that the majority of the fires were started by the Confederates in their haste to get out of the city.

I would say regardless of who was responsible for starting the fires, Sherman did absolutely nothing to stop the fires once they began.

As a result, large portions of the city were burned down before the fires went out.

Dr. Edgar> I'm not sure we will ever know who really and truly burned Columbia.

We know who burned some specific buildings.

The one thing that everybody agrees on, whether it's a Confederate account or Union account, and that is the fierce wind that was blowing.

There was no way to stop the fire as long as the wind was blowing.

Columbia's primitive fire department was hindered by the drunken soldiers.

Fire hoses were cut.

Even if they hadn't, they couldn't have made much headway.

>> Sherman never intended to burn Columbia, but when things got out of hand and the city caught fire, he didn't lift one finger to stop it.

narrator> April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant in Virginia, for all practical purposes ending the Civil War.

A few days later in North Carolina, Sherman's march through the South came to a close.

Thavolvia> The destruction in Georgia was immense, but it did not compare in intensity to the destruction in South Carolina.

When Sherman moved out of South Carolina into North Carolina, the plundering stopped.

narrator> As far as the North was concerned, Sherman's march was a major success.

Success was not a word used to describe Sherman in the years prior to the war.

Dennis> Like many others, he left the army and pursued other occupations in civilian life.

Tried to become a banker and failed at that.

Tried to become a lawyer and failed there also.

So when the war broke out, Sherman was a... the head of a railcar company in Saint Louis.

He participated in the battle of Bull Run and did as miserably as the rest of the Federal Army.

His brigade was driven from the battlefield.

There was a part of Sherman that was a workaholic.

He was very much of a type A personality.

In his preparations when he was assigned to a, uh... duty in Kentucky, he literally worked himself into a frenzy, a nervous breakdown.

narrator> Later Sherman joined Grant's campaign.

It was during the long battle for Vicksburg, that Sherman learned from Grant a maneuver he would use during his march.

Thavolvia> Grant's success in orchestrating the Union victory at Vicksburg, which entailed breaking loose from his supply lines-- those two things would remain fixed in his mind when he gets to Atlanta and in his decision to cut loose from his supply lines from Atlanta, moving to Savannah.

narrator> The conflict which exists today between the public's need to know versus the armed forces need for military secrecy dates back to the Civil War.

All during the march, the press was kept at arm's length from Sherman.

Dennis> Sherman did not enjoy good press.

When he suffered a nervous breakdown, the reporters reported that he was a crazy man, or, if he wasn't, he should be locked away in an asylum, while he had suffered this nervous breakdown.

Sherman had all the journalists thrown out of his camp.

He said that they were publishing information that would be of use to the enemy.

So as much as possible, Sherman controlled information that journalists wrote.

Frankly, he preferred that there would not be any information whatever.

He considered the, uh... the journalists to be almost in league with the enemy because, inadvertently, they supplied them with valuable military intelligence.

So he hated and despised them.

narrator> Perhaps key to the success of Sherman's march, despite his early failures, was the fact he had lived in the South during the years leading up to war.

Dennis> Sherman was one of the few who realized that this would be a long, costly, and bloody war.

He knew the Southerners best, having, uh...served in the South prior to the war.

He knew the Southern people.

Dr. Edgar> He had been president of what eventually would become LSU.

So he had a lot of knowledge and experience in the South.

Thavolvia> He was convinced that Southerners had-- or at least they were deluded in their belief that the Northern public was, um... determined to, to... destroy slavery and that they were also deluded in their belief that the North would let the South go without a fight.

narrator> Following the war, Sherman was given command of the Army's activities on the western frontier.

In 1869, he became general of the Army upon Grant's election as President.

Despite strong support, Sherman declined to run for President in 1884.

He died in February 1891.

[lively bluegrass music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator> Total monetary damage done by Sherman's troops during the march is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars... billions by today's values.

But perhaps the greatest destruction to the people in the path of the march was not physical, but emotional.

Dr. Edgar> Sherman and Grant, but particularly Sherman, were practicing what today we would call a "total war."

And his march to the sea and through the Carolinas is a very good example of how... modern military planners look at the total picture.

They don't just deal with the army.

They deal with the support, with the home front.

The object is to bring the war to a conclusion as quickly as possible.

If it means attacking the home front, the civilian population, depriving them of food, transportation, housing, what have you... you do it.

The idea is to reduce your casualties.

If the enemy suffers, that's too bad...he's the enemy.

♪ [poignant bluegrass music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (music fades)