When Gen. William T. Sherman’s troops left Columbia, S.C., on the morning of Feb. 20, 1865, about a third of it lay in ashes behind them, with thousands left homeless. Within weeks, Southerners had begun to publish what they considered evidence of an orchestrated Northern atrocity. Ten years later, the dispute remained so sharp that Sherman felt it necessary to defend himself in his memoirs by accusing Confederates of setting the city on fire themselves. Even today, many neoconfederate websites argue that the burning of Columbia was a Union war crime.
The truth is different: Columbia burned during the night of Feb. 17-18, 1865, but not directly because of command decisions by either the Confederate or Union generals ostensibly in control. While the Northern generals deserve some blame, the burning of the South Carolina capital was in reality a result of confusion, misjudgment and simple bad luck. It was, in sum, an accident of war.
