Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/218

206 the direction they were going, they observed a group of Federal soldiers seeming to be excited, and upon approaching they saw a negro lying dead directly in their path, being shot through the heart. "General Sherman," the Mayor, Dr. T. J. Goodwyn, narrates, "asked of the soldiers 'how came the negro shot,'" and was answered that he had been guilty of great insolence to them, and that thereupon General Sherman remarked: "Stop this, boys, this is all wrong; take away the body and bury it." "General Sherman," continues the Mayor, "then stepped over the body of the negro and observed to this deponent that 'in quiet times such a thing ought to be noticed, but in times like this it cannot be done.'" General Sherman resumed his conversation in relation to slavery and no arrest was ordered or any censure or reprimand uttered by him, except as above stated. About sundown, as the Mayor deposes, General Sherman said to him: "Go home, and rest assured that your city will be as safe in my hands as if you had control of it." He added that he was compelled to burn some of the public buildings, and in so doing did not wish to destroy one particle of private property. "This evening," he said, "was too windy to do anything." An esteemed clergyman, Rev. J. Toomer Porter, testifies that the same afternoon, between six and seven o'clock, General Sherman said to him: "You must know a great many ladies. Go around and tell them to go to bed quietly; they will not be disturbed any more than if my army was one hundred miles off." He seemed oblivious of the fact that we had been pillaged and insulted the whole day. In one hour's time the city was in flames. Meanwhile the soldiers had burned that afternoon many houses in the environs of the town, including the dwelling of General Hampton and that of his sisters, formerly the residence of their father, and once the seat of genial and princely hospitality. Throughout the day, after they had marched into the town, the soldiers of General Sherman gave distinct and frequent notice to the citizens of their impending calamity, usually in the form of fierce and direct threats, but, occasionally, as if in kindly forewarning. A lady of rare worth and intelligence, and of high social position, Mrs. L. S. McCord, relates the following incident: "One of my maids brought me a paper, left, she told me, by a Yankee soldier; it was an ill-spelled but kindly warning of the horrors to come, written upon a torn sheet of my dead son's note-book, which, with private papers of every kind, now strewed my yard; it was signed by a lieutenant, but of what company and regiment I did not take note. The writer said he