“Please speak the truth as to what would happen to black men if “they try to assert their independence.”

Actually some did in Columbia during the invasion. Of course, they were not trying to assert their independence from the people of Columbia, but rather from the invading Yankee army.

If you happened to be a black female who did not welcome the sexual advances of drunken Yankee solders, you may be raped and drowned in a mud puddle.(http://tinyurl.com/BurningColumbia , p.29)

Those blacks who did welcome their “liberators” were often met with a fist or the but of a gun if they were lucky, shot dead if they weren’t (Ibid., p. 50)

A good source, in fact one of the best, for details of Yankee outrages against Southerners– black and white–can be found in the Slave Narratives which are available online at http://tinyurl.com/scslaves. Spend a little time here to see what black folks, with very few exceptions, thought of the invaders…

Another excellent source is Brain Cisco’s Book War Crimes Against Southern Civilians (available at Amazon and elsewhere). He makes extensive use the Narratives and other first hand accounts from all over the South.

James the foot Soldier Says:

“The truth is, there was NO battle for Columbia, the mayor ran to Sherman waving a white flag after a few rounds hit their mark on the statehouse…smart man that mayor…and thank God the Flag of the United States of America proudly flies there once and for all.”

No, there was no battle for Columbia, the city was formally surrendered and was populated entirely by noncombatants– mostly old men, women, and servants. This makes the outrage all the more horrible. Sherman was good at fighting these kinds of battles…

If you are for invasion, war crimes, rape, murder, pillage, and a host of other monstrous things done under the United States flag, then I reckon it warms your heart seeing it fly up there. We got what we deserved, right?

I doubt the people who lived through it, especially these women (see 261ff http://tinyurl.com/Women-BurningColumbia ) thought much about the flag of the invaders– and for good reason!

If you think the North had any regard for slavery or black folks, you need to do a little research. Here’s a good place to start: http://www.slavenorth.com/.
Be sure and check their citations, you really can’t trust 2nd or 3rd hand accounts…

You are a fool, sir, if you cannot see the implications of this event.

The South was right and the North was wrong– the end of slavery was an unintended consequence of the war (albeit, a fortunate one), as anyone even remotely familiar with Lincoln’s policies regarding the matter, the original 13th amendment, and the text of the so-called Emancipation Proclamation knows.

There is no virtue in believing a falsehood. A false understanding of our history is not only unnecessary given the abundance of materials available, but (more importantly) it is dangerous! We do not want to relive the past if it is avoidable…

Respectfully,

Paul C. Graham

Please speak to the truth of the murder, rape, and purposeful destruction of an entire race of HUMAN BEINGS for CENTURIES….

Please speak the truth as to what would happen to black men if “they try to assert their independence.”

The truth is, there was NO battle for Columbia, the mayor ran to Sherman waving a white flag after a few rounds hit their mark on the statehouse…smart man that mayor…and thank God the Flag of the United States of America proudly flies there once and for all.

Simma down nah…

Michael,

That is complete BS and we have plenty of primary, first hand accounts (Not some College professor’s Linconian textbook defense of what was arguably the worst war crime committed on American soil)to dispel any doubts about who was responsible for what.

This PC affair about which Sic writes, i.e., Columbia’s Longest Days, is supposed to be a commemoration or remembrance, not a celebration. While I think such an event ought to be very somber and brutally honest about whom did what to whom, any mention of that affair serves a valuable (albeit unintended) purpose– that is, remembering what a government is willing to do to its citizens if they try to assert their independence or exercise their rights without permission. A lesson that we ought to be paying very careful attention to in these troubled times.

What happened on the streets of Columbia ought to make any American blush with shame.

The City of Columbia, who has kept an arm’s distance of the event, does not even acknowledge the fact that Columbia was burned on their web page. In fact, nothing apparently happened in Columbia from 1854 to 1870… (See http://www.columbiasc.net/columbia/257 ) This, of course, is outrageous.

William Gilmore Simms’ first hand account is among the best, but there are many others which I would be happy to cite if anyone was interested in the truth of the matter.

Simms account can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/BurningColumbia

If you want to understand the war, you must understand Columbia. This is the very spot where the republic, once and for all, ceased to exist. We have been pretending ever since.

V/R,

Paul C. Graham