City Commemorates 150th Anniversary of Sherman Burning

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– City leaders on Friday launched a series of events to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the burning of Columbia. Mayor Steve Benjamin, along with leaders from the Historic Columbia foundation hosted an event at the corner of Main and Gervais to discuss the impact of that historical day. The burning of Columbia, S.C. was a major event in the Civil War and a defining moment in the history of the state and city. Columbia, the site of the original Secession Convention and capital of the first seceding state, was seen by the Union army as a special political target to encourage the surrender of the remaining Confederate forces. Columbia surrendered to the Union Army under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman on February 17, 1865, and while the soldiers‘ arrival signaled the imminent emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the city, the city suffered widespread destruction. The legacy of this physical loss is a pillar of the city‘s common folklore and memories of the Civil War, and it remains hotly-debated today.