fragments through the ceilings, and burst out great patches of brick and mortar, which now lie on the pavement below, untouched since they fell. Every imaginable portion of buildings have been damaged by our fire, and not a single house in this portion of the town has escaped. Not a building is occupied, save by the brave women to whom I have already referred, and the front doors or windows gape open, through which you may gaze upon battered offices, demolished stores and counting-rooms in ruin, where commerce once dwelt and active business men pursued their respective vocations unmolested and undisturbed. The churches, St. Michael's and St. Philips, have not escaped the storm of our projectiles. Their roofs are perforated, their walls scarred, their pillars demolished, and within, the pews filled with plastering or fragments of mural tablets, which were to perpetuate the memory of some good man long asleep in the grave-yard near by. You may count up a round number of shell-holes in their steeples, and many upturned monuments in their grave-yards. War is cruel, and the howling projectile that takes its start four miles and a half away is indifferent whether it ploughs up the marble that affection has placed over the remains of long buried worth, or crashes into the political halls where treason is plotted or crime against humanity is conceived. The cold iron has been no respecter of property in Charleston. The good and bad, rich and poor, crim

inal and saint—if there be any of the latter here—have received visits from the Parrott projectiles, and keenly felt the justice of the visitation.

law.

February 19th, Charleston was placed under martial

Some of the regulations had a peculiar interest in the reference made to colored officers; a condition of things in that most southern of the cities of the South, in its love of the "peculiar institution," the wildest reformer did not dream of four years ago.

General Sherman disdained the display of success on entry into South Carolina, and remained on the hostile territory surrounded with mystery, caring only, in his own language, to do "a man's share" in suppressing the frightful revolt. On February 19th, he was at Winsboro, thirty miles north of Columbia, on the railroad leading to Charlotte. The first telegram from him was dated at Laurel Hill, North Carolina, March 8th, saying: "We are all well, and have done finely."

CHAPTER XXV.

Wilmington-Peace Commissioners-General Sherman's Statesmanship-His Characteristics-Interesting Recollections of General Sherman-His pure

Character.

a

Wil

HE able General Schofield has been successful in the Department of North Carolina. mington was compelled to strike the Confederate flag, and "Cavalry Sheridan" sent Early's troops "whirling" from his path whenever

they measured swords on the battle-field.

With light spreading toward the zenith from every part of the horizon of our land, the first spring month is passing away. The rebellion grows weak and furious, hastening to the overthrow for which all true freemen have prayed, and which despots great and small have only feared.

While General Sherman was on his way to Richmond, piercing the Carolinas with his lines of march and driving the rebel armies from his path, two important events transpired outside of martial movements. One

was the sending of "peace commissioners" from Richmond, early in February, who were met near General Grant's headquarters by the President and Secretary Seward, and whose conference left the question of peace where it was before, in the hands of Generals Grant and Sherman. The other memorable event was the passage of the Constitutional Amendment by Congress, forbidding, after its approval by three-fourths of the States, involuntary servitude, excepting for crime, throughout the land. It was an occasion of intense interest in the national Capitol, followed by similar scenes in the loyal North, giving to the celebration of Washington's Birth Day an importance in connection with the recent victories which was never known before, nor is it likely to have again.

General Sherman has from the beginning of the war shown those great qualities of generalship rarely combined, even in successful commanders. His genius reminds us of Napoleon Buonaparte in the comprehensive appreciation of the entire field of action and the exact issue, in high military culture, in the daring campaigns which have given him a preeminence among the few who stand alone in their unquestioned mastery of the art of war and ability to meet its largest responsibilities, and in a statesmanship equal to his military attainments.

Whatever question in the complicated interests of the stirring times he touches, it finds a clear and decisive

answer. He has studied history, and the principles which lie at the foundation of the Republic. He is not cruel, but believing war to be simply an engine of destruction to secure an ultimate good which can be reached by no peaceful means, his policy is the legitimate working of that engine. He would wield it with no tears of false philanthropy that would protract the appeal to its sanguinary settlement of difficulties, nor with the vacillation that would spare the enemy present suffering and secure a greater amount of sorrow in the future. Loyal, patriotic, and modest, he has kept his eye on the national ensign through untold labors and perils, amid detraction and the rivalries of a mean ambition, holding the rein upon his war-horse with a warm but unrelaxing grasp.

.

With a highly nervous temperament and manner, he is always calm and self-possessed in action. Genial and sincere his troops admire and love him, and are ready to follow him to the bosom of a boundless wilderness thronged with foes, or into the swamps waist deep to storm a fortress beyond.

Since this biography was written some pleasant reminiscences of General Sherman have appeared in the Leavenworth Conservative, of Kansas, which, on account of their interesting character, are here added to his life:

"Citizens of Leavenworth will remember that there stood on Main Street, between Delaware and Shawnee, in 1857, 1858, and 1859, on the ground now occupied by