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1865.

civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish; and the war came. "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and power ful interest. All knew that this inter est was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest, was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. prayer of both could not be an

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swered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil, shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so, still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

This brief but touching address hav ing been delivered, a national salute

CH. XIX.]

GRANT'S ORDERS TO SHERMAN.

519

off quietly and calmly, and the president had good reason to look forward to a successful issue of the great contest and a return of peace, for which

was fired, and Mr. Lincoln, seated in an open barouche with Senator Foster, of the committee of arrangements, was escorted through Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Everything passed he and all true patriots ardently longed.

CHAPTER XIX.

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SHERMAN'S MARCH TO GOLDSBOROUGH, N. C. : CHARLESTON AND WILMINGTON CAPTURED.

Grant's orders to Sherman and his reply - Further orders - Arrangements in regard to Schofield and his cooperating force - Sherman's preliminary movements - March begun on the 1st of February- Advance of the army across the Salkahatchie, to Orangeburg, and thence to Columbia, S. C.-The city burned and pillaged by rebel cavalry - Charleston evacuated by Hardee, February 18th - State and condition of the city-Fort Anderson on Cape Fear River - Attack- Abandoned by the rebels-Wilmington captured · Results of the capture-Grant's directions to Gen. Thomas-Further movements of the right and left wings of Sherman's army towards Fayetteville, N. C.- The town entered, March 11th Sherman's views as to his position - Movement towards Goldsborough — Advance of Schofield and Terry - Hardee, and contest at Averysborough - Battle at Bentonville with Johnston - Losses - Goldsborough taken Sherman's conference with Grant- The march and its results -- Excellent conduct of the army.

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Grant, which, he estimated, would take about six weeks' time; but that he would obey the lieutenant-general's order at once, and could reach him by sea as early as the middle of January. Grant thereupon, on the 28th of December, ordered Sherman to make preparations to start as he proposed, with out delay, to break up the railroads in North and South Carolina, and join the armies operating against Richmond as soon as he could.

GEN. SHERMAN, as we have already | Raleigh, N. C., and thence to report to noted (see p. 492), having reached and occupied Savannah, on the 21st of December, 1864, was ready almost at once for any further movement toward securing the triumph of our arms. Early in the month, December 6th, Gen. Grant, regarding the capture of Lee's army as the most important operation which required attention, sent orders to Sherman, "that, after establishing a base on the sea coast, with necessary garrison, to include all his artillery and cavalry, to come by water to City Point with the balance of his command." Sherman, in reply, December 16th, stated, that he had expected, on reducing Savannah, to march to Columbia, S. C., thence to

As tending to facilitate his movements, Grant informed Sherman, on the 21st of January, that he had order. ed east, from Tennessee, the 23d corps, under Gen. Schofield; that that corps numbered about 21,000 men; that there

was a garrison at Fort Fisher of about 8,000, and at Newbern of about 4,000 men; that if Wilmington was captured, Schofield would go there; if not, he would be sent to Newbern; that in either event, all the surplus force at both points would move to the interior towards Goldsborough, in co-operation with his movement; that from either point railroad communication could be run out; and that all these troops would be subject to Sherman's orders as he came into communication with them. Sherman having recruited his men, and made all the needful preparations for his advance, sent the 17th corps under Blair, January 15th, by way of Beaufort, S. C., to make a lodgment on the Charleston Railroad, at or near Pocataligo. This was accomplished, and a depot for supplies was established near the mouth of Pocataligo Creek. A demonstration was made in the direction of Charleston, so as to divert the attention of the rebels, and cause them, under apprehension of an attack on that city, to keep a considerable force there prepared to defend it. Sherman, however, had no intention of stopping for this purpose; Charleston would fall of itself in due time; and Sherman's blow against the "Confederacy" was to be much heavier than would result from taking the rebel city where was fired the first gun at the opening of the rebellion.

The march of Sherman's army was begun on the 1st of February. Gen. Slocum, with the left wing, had been delayed, by the heavy rains and floods, from crossing the Savannah River; but he was enabled to gain a passage at

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Sister's Ferry, on the 2d of February. Kilpatrick's cavalry also was crossed on pontoon bridges. General Howard, with the right wing, was directed to cross the Salkahatchie, and push rapidly for the South Carolina Railroad, at or near Midway. The rebels held the line of the Salkahatchie, in force; but, on the 3d of February, Mower's and Giles's divisions of the 17th corps crossed the swamp nearly three miles wide, and with the water nearly up to the waist, and drove the enemy towards Branchville. The rebels retreated behind the Edisto, and being threatened at Branchville, burned the railroad bridge, and Walker's bridge below, across the Edisto. From the 7th to the 10th of February, the 17th corps was occupied in thoroughly destroying the railroad track. The left wing was similarly occupied with the South Carolina Railroad, from Branchville to Windsor. Having divided the enemy's forces by these ope rations, a movement was begun on Orangeburg. On the 12th of February, the rebels attempted resistance at the bridge, and it was partially burned; but they were soon repulsed, the bridge was repaired, and our troops entered Orangeburg late in the afternoon. Blair was ordered to destroy this road effectually up to Lewisville, and to push the enemy across the Congaree, and force him to burn the bridges, which he did on the 14th of February.

Having forced the passage of the Little Congaree, the head of the column, early on the 16th of February, reached the Congaree, opposite Columbia, but too late to save

CH. XIX.]

CHARLESTON CAPTURED.

the fine bridge which spanned the river at that point. It was destroyed by the rebels.

521

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of above, rendered the evacuation of
Charleston a necessity. With its sup-
plies cut off, with the army of Sherman
in the rear, closely beset on James Is-
land by the forces of the department
of the South, with Admiral Dahl-
gren's powerful navy in front, it was
no longer tenable as a military
post. It was only left to Har-
dee, who was in command, to escape
while he could by the single northerly
coast line of railroad still open to him.
Prominent citizens had already left,
the army and stores were being re-
moved, and on the 18th of February,
the city was surrendered. Gillmore
announced the fact in a dispatch to
Washington of the same date. All
that could be destroyed by the rebels
was set on fire or blown up; cotton
warehouses, arsenal, bridges, vessels in
the ship yard, stores, locomotives, etc.,
shared a common fate. The cotton de-
stroyed was estimated at 4,000 bales.
Gillmore reported a capture of 450
pieces of ordnance and a large quantity
of ammunition; but the city itself was
in a deplorable state. It was almost
desolate, and far the greater part of the
inhabitants which were left, were the
poor and destitute who could not get
away."
Hardee retreated in the direc-

Sherman directed the crossing not to be made in front of Columbia, but three miles above, and the town thus to be taken from the north. There were great astonishment and fright in Columbia; and on the 17th of February, it was surrendered by the mayor to our forces. The rebel general, Wade Hamp. ton, in command, had ordered all the cotton to be moved into the street and fired, which was done. Our men tried to put out the conflagration, but were only partially successful. "I disclaim," says Sherman, in his report, "on the part of my army, any agency in the fire, but on the contrary claim that we saved what of Columbia remains unconsumed. And without hesitation, I charge Gen. 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." During the 18th and 19th of February, the arsenal, railroad depots, machine shops, foundries, and other buildings were properly destroyed by detailed working parties, and the railroad track torn up and destroyed down to Kingsville and * A correspondent of one of the journals gives a grathe Waterce Bridge, and up in the di-phic account of the state of affairs in Charleston when our troops took possession. "It is an indescribable rection of Winnsborough.* scene of desolation and ruin, of roofless, doorless, win

The capture of Branchville, spoken dowless houses, crumbling walls, upheaved pavements,

* The thieving and pillaging done by Wheeler's cavalry before Columbia was taken was bitterly moaned over by the rebels; and when was added to this, the fierce conflagration and the terror and dismay of the inhabitants, it became evident that the capital of South Carolina was paying fearfully for its share in the rebellion.

VOL. IV.-66

and grassgrown streets-silent to all sounds of business, and voiceless only to the woe-begone, povertystricken, haggard people, who wander up and down amid the ruins, looking to a jubilant past, a disappointed present, and a hopeless future. They are in rags, and their boots are out at the toes, their shoes down at the heels. There is no longer a manifestation of arrogance, lordly insolence, and conscious superiority over the Yankees on the part of the whites."

tion of North Carolina, having with him about 12,000 men.

This stronghold having been lost, Hoke speedily evacuated Wilmington, Gen. Schofield, who had received in- which, after some fighting, on the 20th structions from Grant, as noted on a and 21st of February, was entered, on previous page (p. 519), acting in concert the morning of the 22d, by the troops with Admiral Porter, entered vigorously under Gen. Terry. The rebels retreatupon the work with which he was charged towards Goldsborough during the ed. After the capture of Fort Fisher (p. night, having destroyed before they 500) the chief obstacle hindering an left about 1,000 bales of cotton, 15,000 advance by water to Wilmington, N. barrels of rosin, a large cotton shed and C., was Fort Anderson, on the Cape presses, an iron-clad partly completed, Fear River, guarding the approach to three extensive turpentine works, and the city. It was said to be a work of various bridges. About 700 prisoners immense strength and extent, enclosing were captured, and also some thirty to an area of about four square miles. forty pieces of artillery. The movement up the river was begun The taking of Wilmington was lookon the 11th of February, with a recon-ed upon as very valuable and importnaissance which was pushed to the re- ant, with reference to further operations bel lines on the left bank of the river on the part of Sherman, and preparaopposite the fort and about twelve tions were at once made for a movemiles from Wilmington. There was ment on Goldsborough in two columns, some sharp skirmishing at the enemy's the one from Wilmington, and the other outposts, Gen. Hoke being in command from Newbern. Preparations were of the rebel forces, in which the negro also made for repairing the railroad troops were actively engaged, while the leading to Goldsborough, from each of Monitor Montauk bombarded the fort. the places just named, as well as to These preliminary movements were fol- supply Sherman by Cape Fear River lowed up, on the 16th of February, by toward Fayetteville, if it should bethe transfer by Gen. Schofield of Cox's come necessary. division of the 23d corps across from Federal Point to Smithfield, whence they advanced on the right bank of the river through swampy and difficult ground to the rear of Fort Anderson. Early on the morning of the 18th of February, Porter began and kept up during the day a heavy fire upon the fort. Schofield, meanwhile, was working in the rear of the rebels, to cut them off; but during the night they abandoned the fort, which was occupied by our forces the next morning. | Sherman's movements, Grant had no

1964.

On the last day of January, Grant directed Gen. Thomas to send a cavalry expedition, under Gen. Stoneman, from East Tennessee to penetrate South Carolina, well down toward Columbia, to destroy the railroads and military resources of the country, and return, if he was able, to East Tennessee by way of Salisbury, N. C., releasing our prisoners there, if possible. Of the feasibility of his latter, however, Gen. Stoneman was to judge.

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