ich he might base so positive a statement.[220] It had generally been
the custom for the Confederates in their retreat to burn cotton to
prevent its falling into the hands of the invading army, and because
such was the general rule Sherman assumed that it had been applied in
this particular case. This assumption suited his interest, as he sought
a victim to whom he might charge the burning of Columbia. His statement
in his "Memoirs," published in 1875, is a delicious bit of historical
naivete. "In my official report of this conflagration," he wrote, "I
distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and confess I did so
pointedly, to shake the faith of his people in him, for he was in my
opinion boastful and professed to be the special champion of South
Carolina."

Instead of Hampton giving an order to burn the cotton, I am satisfied
that he urged Beauregard, the general in command, to issue an order that
this cotton should not be burned, lest the fire might spread to the
shops and houses, which for the most part were built of wood, and I am
further satisfied that such an order was given. Unfortunately the
evidence for this is not contemporary. No such order is printed in the
"Official Records," and I am advised from the War Department that no
such order has been found. The nearest evidence to the time which I have
discovered is a letter of Wade Hampton of April 21, 1866, and one of
Beauregard of May 2, 1866. Since these dates, there is an abundance of
evidence, some of it sworn testimony, and while it is mixed up with
inaccurate statements on another point, and all of it is of the nature
of recollections, I cannot resist the conclusion that Beauregard and
Hampton gave such an order. It was unquestionably the wise thing to do.
There was absolutely no object in burning the cotton, as the Federal
troops could not carry it with them and could not ship it to any seaport
which was under Union control.

An order of Beauregard issued two days after the burning of Columbia and
printed in the "Official Records" shows that the policy of burning
cotton to keep it out of the hands of Sherman's army had been abandoned.
Sherman's charge, then, that Wade Hampton burned Columbia, falls to the
ground. The other part of his account, in which he maintained that the
fire spread to the buildings from the smoldering cotton rekindled by
the wind, which was blowing a gale, deserves more respect. His report
saying that he saw cotton afire in th