On this day in 1865, the soldiers from Union General William
Tecumseh Sherman's army ransack Columbia, South Carolina, and
leave a charred city in their wake. Sherman is most famous for
his March to the Sea in the closing months of 1864. After
capturing Atlanta in September, Sherman cut away from his supply
lines and cut a swath of destruction across Georgia on his way
to Savannah. His army lived off the land and destroyed
railroads, burned warehouses, and ruined plantations along the
way. This was a calculated effort--Sherman thought that the war
would end more quickly if civilians of the South felt some
destruction personally, a view supported by General Ulysses S.
Grant, commander of all Union forces, and President Abraham
Lincoln. After spending a month in Savannah, Sherman headed
north to tear the Confederacy into smaller pieces. The Yankee
soldiers took particular delight in carrying the war to South
Carolina, the symbol of the rebellion. It was the first state to
secede and the site of Fort Sumter, whe