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The responsibility for the fires has been a topic of historical, and popular, debate. The idea that Gen. Sherman ordered the burning of Columbia has persisted as part of the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. But modern historians have concluded that no one cause led to the burning of Columbia, and that Sherman did not order the burning.
Sherman's March to the Sea (also known as the Savannah campaign or simply Sherman's March) was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by William Tecumseh Sherman, major general of the Union Army.
William Tecumseh Sherman (/ t ɪ ˈ k ʌ m s ə / tih-KUM-sə; [4] [5] February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), earning recognition for his command of military strategy but criticism for the harshness of his scorched-earth policies, which he ...
The Carolinas campaign (January 1 – April 26, 1865), also known as the campaign of the Carolinas, was the final campaign conducted by the Union Army against the Confederate Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
Columbia at this time was a virtual firetrap because of the hundreds of cotton bales in her streets. Some of these had been ignited before Sherman arrived and a high wind spread the flammable substance over the city." [9] In 2015, The State identified "5 myths about the Burning of Columbia": [10] Sherman ordered the burning of Columbia.
According to the 1860 Census, Charleston was the 22nd largest city in the United States, with a population of 40,522. As the 1814 Burning of Washington had shown, America's coastal cities were vulnerable to a hostile fleet.
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The Union controlled the key western rivers and cities, Sherman was moving through Georgia, and Lee was tied down to the defense of Richmond. With foreign recognition now hopeless, Abraham Lincoln's re-election would be disastrous for their cause. The strategic situation in the west in 1864.