This reenactment is based on excerpts from Emma LeConte’s diary. Saturday and Sundays call 573-874-7450 To obtain a permit for open burning – Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 PM, call 573-874-7556. (side 1) Due to Columbia's strategic value, capture of the city was an objective of the Union Army during the Carolina's Campaign of 1865. By Feb. 15 Union forces had moved to within 4 miles of the city and met opposition from Confederate skirmishes and artillery batteries. The Burning of Columbia My Opinion "The Only One That Counts" I was born (1947), raised, and educated in Columbia. On February 16, Sherman issued an order giving instructions for the occupation of Columbia. There has been much written about the burning of the city of Columbia, and who in fact was actually responsible for the conflagration. Panelists talked about the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, during the Civil War, and how the event has been remembered by the city and in history. The capture of Columbia occurred February 17–18, 1865, during the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War.The state capital of Columbia, South Carolina, was captured by Union forces under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.Much of the city was burned although it is not clear which side caused the fires. . The fire official shall have the right to revoke a permit for opening burning for any violation of the above regulations, or if the open burning creates or adds to a hazardous or objectionable situation. Many people believe Sherman, architect of the burning of Atlanta and the scorched-earth policy of the March through Georgia, ordered Columbia to be burned. The Burning of Columbia was taught to me as a current event, not history. This is the text of William Gilmore Simms's late-1865 pamphlet, The Sack and Destruction of the City of Columbia, S.C. An attack upon the town, either by fording the river, which may be possible, or by shelling Columbia, is apprehended to night. Burning Of Columbia Marker (side 1) Inscription. ←View all Exhibits The Burning of Columbia New users are encouraged to read this brief introduction to the site.. -- The bridge is still burning. Retreating confederates set cotton on fire, and the burning embers were carried by the wind. Emma, then seventeen years old, kept a diary for several months in 1865 chronicling the approach, occupation and burning of the city of Columbia by General Sherman's troops. When you hear or read about the burning of Columbia, General Sherman’s principal target in South Carolina, you are often told that the origin of the fire is a historical mystery that can’t be conclusively solved, or that the fires were actually initiated by the evacuating Confederate troops, or even by the citizens of Columbia themselves—none of which is true. Who burned Columbia. 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