Eyewitness Accounts of the Sack of the City. Kosovo? Chechnya?

by august (no login)

 

"The heat from the burning houses was almost unbearable. I spent a greater part of the night walking around the city - witnessing the terrible events going on around me. The beautiful gardens, flowers, trees, and shrubbery for which the city was noted were all destroyed. Churches, colleges and cathedrals were broken down and by daylight of Sunday saw the city a black and smoking desert of ruins. Around the charred ruins of their homes were grouped whole families, mourning and weeping over the terrible desolation."

- Samuel M. Byars, 5th Infantry (Iowa)


"Never in our lives have we seen such destruction and desolation. The people were in the parks and the woods and the fields without shelter."

- Pvt. Joe Saunier, 4th Infantry (Ohio)


"I trust I shall never witness such a scene again - drunken soldiers rushing from house to house, emptying them of their valuables and then torching them."

- August Conrad (German visitor to the city)



"Black women were for the most part victims of the soldiers' lust. A number of them were woefully mistreated and ravished. The disorder of the night had caused many to flee their homes and seek a place of refuge. But in the shadows and out-of-the-way places, more than one fell vistim to the soldiers' desires. The next morning their unclothed bodies, bearing the marks of detestable crimes, were found about the city."


- David Conyngham, The New York Herald



Kosovo? Chechnya?


The above are eyewitness accounts of the burning of Columbia, South Carolina. 135 years ago, Feb. 17th-20th, 1865.


"I saw property destroyed until I was perfectly sick of it....I do not believe you can find food enough in South Carolina to keep a dozen chickens over winter."

- Charles Brown, 21st Infantry (Michigan)





Posted on Feb 19, 2000, 2:21 PM

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Aw, just start all over from the top
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  1. a timely bump..... ak, Feb 16, 2004
    1. the anniversary.... Civil war buff, Feb 18, 2006
      1. the anniversary is at hand. Anonymous, Feb 15, 2007
  2. other accounts. Anonymous, Feb 15, 2007

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