Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

Tuesday, 21st—We left camp about noon and moved forward another ten miles. The First Brigade took the railroad, destroying it as they went.

Monday, 20th—We continued our march northward today about ten miles, destroying six miles of railroad. All the railroads within twenty miles of Columbia have been destroyed, every tie is burned and every rail is twisted into a corkscrew. A sad accident happened yesterday afternoon in Columbia when a detail from the Fifteenth Army Corps was casting the fixed ammunition into the river. A man dropped a shell on the bank of the river, which exploding, caused other ammunition to explode and ignited a large quantity of powder, killing several soldiers and wounding twenty others. When Sherman heard of it, he is said to have remarked that one of his soldiers was worth more than all that ammunition or even the city of Columbia.

Sunday, 19th—We marched out on the railroad today and destroyed seven miles of track, then returned to camp, where we had left our knapsacks. We heard the sounds today of heavy explosions down in Columbia, and it is reported that our men have blown up the new State House.[1]

[1] The sound of the explosions in Columbia, which we heard on that day, was due to the destruction by our men of the fixed ammunition found there. General Sherman saved the beautiful new state capitol building, though it bore some of the ear marks of our shot and shell. The burning of Columbia resulted from the Confederates’ setting fire to the bales of cotton in the streets; then at night some of the Union soldiers, getting too much poor whisky and burning with revenge, set fire to some of the vacant houses, and the high wind soon spread it over the whole town.—A. G. D.

Saturday, 18th—Columbia was almost completely destroyed by fire last night. Only a few houses in the outskirts are left standing, and many people are without homes this morning. Collumbia was a very nice town situated on the Congaree at the head of navigation. Three railroads run through the town. A new stone State House was being built, which it is said was to have been the capital of the Southern Confederacy. Last night I passed by the sheds where the fine marble columns for the building were carved and stored, and this morning they were all in ruins and the sheds in ashes. It is a sad sight to see the citizens standing in groups on the streets, holding little bundles of their most valued effects and not knowing what to do. It is said that some even came here from Charleston to escape Sherman’s army. The people certainly have paid dearly for the privilege of seceding from the Union. The Seventeenth Corps passed through Columbia this morning and we were more than three hours in going through town. Our division marched out northwest along the railroad, destroying it all the way, and went into bivouac about six miles from town.

Friday, 17th—The Seventeenth Army Corps remained all day on the south bank of the Congaree river, near the Saluda cotton mills, while the Fifteenth Corps early this morning crossed the north fork, the Broad river, on pontoons, having laid them during the night, and moved down upon Columbia. But when they entered the place they found that the rebels had already left it. In the meantime the Thirteenth Iowa Regiment, being on our skirmish line in front of the city, crossed the river in skiffs and after a little skirmishing succeeded in placing their flag on the State House before any of the Fifteenth Corps even got into town.[1] So a part of the Seventeenth Corps was the first to enter Columbia.[2] Our corps crossed the forks late this afternoon and went into camp a short distance from town.

[1] This is precisely the substance of the original entry of Mr. Downing’s diary. In the following footnote, after almost fifty years, he explains the flag episode more fully and also speaks incidentally of the burning of Columbia, though he makes no mention of it in his original; that he did not is. however, not to be wondered at, since such burnings were common. In his revision fifty years later he does not enter into the discussion of “Who Burned Columbia,” but makes a single statement, which seems to hold the Confederates responsible.—Ed.

[2] It was a bright sunshiny day with a high wind blowing from the south. From where we were, on the south bank of the river just opposite the city, we could see men on foot and on horseback in the main street of Columbia, lighting the cotton bales which they before had piled up in the streets for defenses. In the forenoon, a detachment of men from the Thirteenth Iowa Regiment crossed the river, and driving the enemy’s skirmishers into the city, they placed their regimental flag on the State House, thus having the honor of being the first to place the Stars and Stripes on the capitol of the first state to secede from the Union.

The Thirteenth Iowa was in Crocker’s Brigade, or the Third Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps. The boys of the Thirteenth Iowa made the mistake of not placing a guard about their flag, for about an hour after they had raised their flag, the Iowa Brigade in the Fifteenth Army Corps entered the city from the west, and the Thirtieth Iowa Regiment of that brigade, being on the skirmish line, naturally made for the State House. Upon approaching the capitol and seeing no Union soldiers around, they proceeded to investigate a little, and upon entering the building and finding no guard, they took down the flag of the Thirteenth Iowa, and put up their own instead. They then left a guard to defend it. The Thirteenth Iowa was without a flag for two or three days, when the Thirtieth Iowa finally returned to them their flag.

Our corps, the Seventeenth, moved up the river, and by dark had crossed the forks, the Saluda and Broad rivers, on the pontoons. As soon as we had stacked arms, I left for the city to replenish my haversack, which had become rather flat, and I did not get back to our bivouac until 2 o’clock in the morning, and then without anything to eat in my haversack. On entering town I passed by the abandoned Confederate commissary department, and seeing a great abundance of food stuffs, I thought that I would go down into town for a while, and then on my way back would fill up my haversack. But when I returned, I found the building in flames and food and all was in ashes before daylight.—A. G. D.

Thursday, 16th—Early this morning cannonading was begun in front of the Fifteenth Corps, followed by some lively skirmishing, and the rebels were routed from their works and driven across the Congaree river. The Fifteenth Corps then marched up along the south bank of the river above the city of Columbia, to the forks, where the Saluda and Broad rivers form the Congaree, and crossed the Saluda on the pontoons. In the meantime our regiment was behind on train guard and did not come into action. We moved forward and with our corps went into camp for the night on the south bank of the Congaree, just opposite Columbia, the state capital.

Wednesday, 15th—It rained all night, and this morning is quite cool. By 8 o’clock we were again on the move and covered ten miles in pushing the rebels back. The Fifteenth Corps on our right drove them back this afternoon behind their fortifications on the south bank of the Congaree river, then we had a regular artillery duel until after dark. We have been in the smoke of the burning pine woods and buildings almost continuously for the last few days. At times when marching on a road alongside the burning pine timber, we became so blackened from the smoke as to look like negroes, while the heat from the burning pitch was frightful.

Tuesday, 14th—We started to move forward at 9 a. m. and after an easy march of twelve miles[1] went into camp for the night. The rebels are still retreating before us.

[1] It will be recalled that in the campaign through Georgia we went in extra light marching orders. Just before we began our raid through the Carolinas, at Pocotaligo, we received further orders which stripped us of all unnecessary articles. General Sherman himself had only a fly-tent at night.

Now I never could stand to carry a heavy knapsack, generally not carrying enough to make it keep its shape. Before we left Pocotallgo, therefore, in order to make it keep its shape and thus carry easier, I made a frame out of a cracker box, eighteen inches square by four inches in depth, and placed it in my knapsack, then rolling my fly-tent, four by seven feet, and around it my rubber poncho, making B roll about eighteen or twenty Inches long, I strapped it on my knapsack and I was ready for the march. With this outfit, when I was well, I could easily march thirty to thirty-five miles a day. This I did without becoming fatigued, carrying besides, my rifle, cartridge-box, haversack with five days’ rations, and my canteen filled with water.—A. G. D.

Monday, 13th—Our corps started out at 7 o’clock this morning and after destroying twenty-six miles of railroad, marched fifteen miles, on the State road from Charleston to Columbia, and went into camp. This is the finest road over which we have marched in all the South; it had mile posts and our division commander must have wanted to see how fast we could march, for we stepped off the fifteen miles in just three hours and fifteen minutes.