I was waiting for someone to zero in on that. But Confederates did not set the cotton on fire. And Sherman even admitted that he lied when he blamed Wade Hampton "to shake the people's confidence in him".
http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article13944398.html
Thousands of highly flammable and valuable cotton bales, each weighing 500 pounds, had been stacked in the streets – particularly Main Street, then known as Richardson Street – in preparation to be burned to keep them out of the hands of federal troops. The intent was published in the press.
But on the night of the 16th, Hampton ordered troops to not burn the cotton because there wasn’t transportation to haul the bales out of the city and the wind was dangerously high. But when Sherman and Union Gen. O.O. Howard entered the city at about 10 a.m. on the 17th, some bales were on fire. Sherman had to ride his horse on the sidewalk of Richardson Street to avoid the flames.
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“A Union prisoner’s account said the (cotton) fires were set in retaliation for Camp Sorghum,” a prison camp in Lexington County near what is now Riverbanks Zoo, said Tom Elmore, author of the book “A Carnival of Destruction: Sherman’s Invasion of South Carolina.” “Every Confederate account but one said the cotton wasn’t burning when they left. If the Confederate accounts are correct, the only possible explanation would be escaped prisoners.”
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During and after the conflagration on the night of the 17th, Union soldiers torched the homes of prominent citizens. The three-story “fireproof” home of Dr. Robert W. Gibbs on Plain Street, now Hampton Street, across from the First Baptist Church, survived the main fire but was looted and torched, destroying world-class collections of books, paintings and historical and natural artifacts.
Wade Hampton’s plantation, Millwood, four miles from the city, was torched, as were the homes of Goodwyn, Confederate Secretary of the Treasury George A. Trenholm, Dr. Daniel Trezevant and many others.
“There is little doubt that (Union soldiers) would be out for revenge,” Hamer said, noting that Columbia was where the first Secession Convention in the South was held. “In the minds of the northern soldiers, these were the men that started the war.”
But McNeely noted that humble structures, stores and even a convent also were torched. Some Union soldiers also spread the fire using turpentine-soaked cotton as torches and impeded firefighting efforts by cutting fire hoses.
“They were destroying almost everything in their path” throughout the march from Savannah, she said. A Union cavalry general “called Barnwell ‘Burn-well’ after he torched it.”
So, was the torching of houses a political statement or a means of stealing loot?
“Yes,” Elmore said.
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Hamer noted that Sherman actively tried to distance himself from the event in official correspondence and testimony after the blaze. “He couldn’t control his army of 60,000, who had been allowed to forage to feed themselves. And he and his high command underestimated the ability of the men to create havoc. I’m not absolving Sherman. But with that invading Army, something was going to happen.”
Elmore added that Union soldiers viewed South Carolina more harshly than the rest of the South, because the war started here. “It was like the anger for the Taliban on Sept. 12 (after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.). It was a perfect storm. I don’t think Sherman ordered it. I think he allowed it.”
McNeely said Sherman knew all along that his men would burn the city, but failed to issue strict orders against it, as he had in Savannah. “It was part of his strategy. And when he finally did (stop the destruction), he said, ‘You should be grateful that I saved what’s left.’ He was in total control.”
I give you the results of these historians:
"Confederate policy, however, was that as the Union army advanced into the South, the stored cotton was to be burned; with Sherman in central South Carolina the authorities knew what had to be done. Consequently, on February 14, Beauregard, through General Hampton, ordered the post commander to move both Confederate and privately owned cotton outside the city to be burned. Unfortunately, the lack of transportation made it impossible for Major Green to carry out this order, so he decided to roll the bales into the streets, with the idea of burning the cotton there. The next day, February 15, the order to burn the cotton was published in the Columbia newspapers. During the fifteenth and sixteenth most of the cotton was moved into the streets." [Marion B. Lucas,
Sherman and the Burning of Columbia, pp. 64-65]
So up to the 16th, the order was to burn the cotton.
In compliance with this order hundreds of bales of cotton were moved into the streets by the confederates themselves. They moved the cotton out of storage and into the streets.
"At about eight o'clock on the night of February 16 Wade Hampton learned that he had been promoted to Lieutenant General and placed in command of the cavalry operating in South Carolina. Shortly thereafter, when he met with Beauregard to discuss Columbia's evacuation, Hampton urged that the cotton not be burned because it would endanger the city. Beauregard was apparently of a similar opinion but, for reasons never explained, delayed a final decision until the next morning. Early on the seventeenth, upon assuming his command, Hampton once again discussed with Beauregard the problems involved in firing the cotton placed in the streets. The South Carolinian reiterated his position that the cotton should not be burned because the stiff wind blowing out of the northwest would spread the flames and destroy the entire town. Hampton argued further that Sherman obviously could not take the cotton with him and perhaps it might be spared the Federal torch. Beauregard concurred.
"Hampton's order not to burn the cotton, issued at approximately seven o'clock in the morning, was the first he gave on February 17 after assuming command." [Ibid., pp. 66-67]
So the decision not to burn the cotton wasn't made until the morning of the 17th, with Hampton's order not going out until 0700, 17 Feb. The late time of the order is very significant:
"The order could not be issued through the post commander, Major Allen J. Green, under whose authority it [the original order to burn the cotton] was originally published, since he had fled the city the previous morning. The matter was further complicated by the fact that the order could not be published in the newspapers, and with the confusion that existed in Columbia it was going to be exceedingly difficult--if not impossible--to see that every soldier became aware of the new order. Finally, Hampton did not post guards over the cotton during the evacuation either on the night of the sixteenth or the morning of the seventeenth." [Ibid., p. 67]
So Hampton did order the cotton to not be burned, but there was no way to transmit that order because he issued the order only three and a half hours prior to the Union forces entering the city, and it was too little and too late because the burning had already started.
"During the night of February 16-17, as the Confederate army withdrew, there was a complete breakdown in discipline. Straggling soldiers and town rabble created the 'wildest terror' as they plundered warehouses and stripped depots. In the midst of the chaos several fires broke out. 'The city was illuminated with burning cotton,' a Confederate officer wrote, describing the situation at three o'clock on the morning of February 17. Just how extensive these fires were is difficult to estimate, but at least two separate blazes can be located. One pile of cotton was seen burning that night on Blanding Street between Richardson and Sidney Park, and another fire was observed in the more than two thousand bales used for breastworks near the South Carolina Railroad depot." [Ibid., p. 68]
As Lucas writes, "The conclusion is inescapable that cotton was burning on the morning of February 17, 1865." [Ibid., p. 69]
"Fires in cotton are notoriously difficult to extinguish, and though it was believed by those present that no danger remained from the cotton near the town hall, the smoldering bales were rekindled again later in the day, probably by the wind. Alderman Orlando Z. Bates later testified that he saw a small amount of cotton burning on Richardson Street about three-o'clock in the afternoon, and as Colonel John E. Tourtelotte rode through town toward camp between 3:00 and 4:00 P.M., he noticed several bales of cotton still on fire." [Ibid., p. 92]
Also, as to looting, the Union soldiers weren't the only ones. "That night, as the retreating Confederates streamed into town, there were several reports of robberies, violence, and riotous conduct on their part. Some of the stores on Richardson Street were broken into and their contents taken. A letter to the Richmond
Whig, written from Charlotte on February 16: 'A party of Wheeler's cavalry, accompanied by their officers, dashed into town, tied their horses, and as systematically as if they had been bred to the business, proceeded to break into the stores along Main [Richardson] street and rob them of their contents.' " [Ibid., pp. 53-54]
One of the confederate stragglers pillaging inadvertently ignited some powder near the railroad depot, causing an enormous explosion at about 6 A.M. on the 17th. There were still confederates in the area. Hampton was still there at the time because he went to see Mayor Goodwyn after the explosion. [Ibid., p. 70]
"Having set the final retreat in motion, Hampton returned to the town hall and instructed Mayor Goodwyn to hoist a white flag. The mayor and aldermen John Stork, Orlando Z. Bates, and John McKenzie were given instructions where to find the advancing Union forces, and between 8:00 and 9:00 A.M. they rode out in a carriage to surrender Columbia.
"The burning of the Charlotte terminal by Butler between ten and eleven o'clock was one of the last acts of the evacuating Confederates. With the smoke of the burning railroad station on the horizon, the remnants of the forces defending Columbia, about five thousand strong, left the city." [Ibid., pp. 70-71]
As Bell Wiley writes in his introduction to Lucas' text, "Professor Lucas concludes that the burning of the city resulted from a series of fires, beginning with cotton ignited by Southerners as they were leaving Columbia. The fire smoldered in the huge piles of cotton bales that had accumulated in 'Cotton Town' on Richardson Street, thus converting that portion of the city into a firetrap. City firemen, with the help of the vanguard of Federal invaders, tried hard to bring the initial conflagration under control, but a brisk and persistent wind rekindled the flames, and new fires were started by resident hoodlums released from prison, by blacks celebrating their new-found freedom, and by poorly disciplined Union soldiers. Many of the incendiaries were intoxicated on liquor dispensed by well-meaning citizens of the city or seized in raids on grogshops and distilleries. Burning cotton and shingles borne through the air by the wind spread the flames rapidly until about three o'clock in the morning of February 18, when a belated roundup of drunks by the Federal provost marshal and the abatement of the wind enabled firemen, soldiers, and local civilians to get the situation under control." [Ibid., p. 12]
"References to the culpability of escaped Federal prisoners are also numerous, but the charges cannot be sustained because of the absence of eyewitness accounts. Evidence is clearer about the part played by one of Columbia's criminals in spreading the fire. Bill Morris, who escaped from jail during the confusion of the entrance of the Union army, was recognized by several citizens during the night as he set fire to houses and outbuildings." [Ibid., p. 103]
So the burning of Columbia was caused by rowdies, most of them southerners, and kept alive by the wind. Federal soldiers actually helped bring the fire under control and prevent further damage.
Troops who were on duty tried to put the fires out. Some of the drunken soldiers did set some fires maliciously.
"Colonel Stone's brigade did not cross before 7 a.m., when he moved out in the direction of Columbia, meeting with little resistance. On his approach he was met by the mayor and other prominent citizens, who formally surrendered the city to his command. Colonel Stone moved his brigade into Columbia, taking possession of the public stores and buildings. A provost guard was at once organized and great exertions to preserve order and protect the city were made by all his officers; but the citizens had received our soldiers with bucketfuls of liquor, and the negroes, overjoyed at our entrance, piloted them to buildings where wine and whisky were stored, and for awhile all control was lost over the disorganized mass. On completion of the bridge the rest of the corps crossed and moved through the city to position on the Columbia Branch of the South Carolina Railroad. Toward dark Colonel Stone's brigade was relieved from duty and fresh troops moved into the city to clear it of the rioters, and, if possible, to preserve order during the night, but the citizens had so crazed our men with liquor that it was almost impossible to control them. The scenes in Columbia that night were terrible. Some fiend first applied the torch and the wild flames leaped from house to house and street to street until the lower and business part of the city was wrapped in flames. Frightened citizens rushed in every direction, and the reeling incendiaries dashed, torch in hand, from street to street, spreading dismay wherever they went. General Woods used every exertion to quell the riot, and his troops aided him in fighting the conflagration, and to their exertions is due the preservation of such portion of the city as escaped the fire. Toward morning General Oliver's brigade, of Hazen's division, was ordered into the city, and this force, in addition to that from the First Division, restored order. The next morning the provost system was more thoroughly organized, and, under command of Brevet Brigadier-General Woods, the city was perfectly quiet." [OR, Series I, Vol XLVII, Part 1, pp. 227-228]
More evidence:
"Sherman and Howard led the way into the city after the mayor surrendered it, the streets littered with broken furniture and other household items left there by pillaging Confederate soldiers and civilians. The railroad depot and a large storage building had been burned to the ground. Bales of cotton piled in the middle of many streets had been torn open, and lint was flying around, catching in trees and bushes. The scene reminded Sherman of a 'northern snow-storm.' The first Union troops into the city turned to trying to extinguish fires in a number of the cotton bales. So many were burning, in fact, that Cump had to ride his horse along the sidewalk to avoid them." [John F. Marszalek,
Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order, pp. 322-323]
"An American and British commission established under the 1870 Treaty of Washington absolved Sherman's army of responsibility, but Confederate sympathizers were not convinced. Southern publications like Confederate Veteran regularly accused Sherman of incinerating Columbia." [Ibid., p. 325]
"It seems clear now that neither Sherman nor anyone else was solely responsible for the fire. It was an accident of war. Hampton and his soldiers set fire to the cotton bales that fueled the fire, but it was released Southern civil prisoners, former slaves, and some Union soldiers, many of these groups intoxicated by the liquor provided by town's people or stolen from storage areas, who set other fires. The Union high command worked valiantly to extinguish the blazes, but the high winds made their task impossible. 'The principal demons in the drama were cotton, whisky, and wind,' a later historian surmised. Sherman phrased it more bluntly in later years, refusing to accept the blame for the Columbia fire. 'Had I intended to burn Columbia,' he said in 1881, 'I would have done it just as I would have done any act of war, and there would have been no concealment about it.' " [Ibid., p. 325]
"Before the Fifteenth Corps left Columbia on February 20, Sherman had it destroy several foundries, the state arsenal jammed with weapons, and a factory that printed Confederate money." [Ibid., p. 325]
"One word about Columbia. It was not burned by orders, but expressly against orders and in spite of the utmost effort on our part to save it. Everything seemed to conspire for its destruction. The streets were full of loose cotton, brought out and set on fire by the rebels before they left,--I saw it when we rode into town. A gale of wind was blowing all that day and that night, and the branches of the trees were white with cotton tufts blown about everywhere. The citizens themselves--like idiots, madmen,--brought out large quantities of liquor as soon as our troops entered and distributed it freely among them, even to the guards which Gen. Howard had immediately placed all over the city as soon as we came in. This fact is unquestionable, and was one chief cause of what followed." [Henry Hitchcock,
Marching With Sherman: Passages from the Letters and Campaign Diaries of Henry Hitchcock, pp. 268-269]