re: #171 albusteve
Sherman lost control of his troops…what happened to Columbia SC is inexcusable and criminal
It can’t be excused, but it can be understood. The Union felt intense rage towards South Carolina, which had been the first state to secede, as well as a hotbed of secessionist sentiments since the Nullification Crisis. With Charleston having surrendered to local forces before Sherman’s army could reach it, Columbia was made the target of the northern wrath. The city was burned in what can only be described as an act of retribution. With its capital in ruins, South Carolina had paid the price of its failed ambitions and it vile social order.
However, as tradewind noted, the brutality of the Union army caused an extreme reaction in the Palmetto State and was one of the reasons SC remained stridently racist until the 1970s. This is also not to excuse the racists, but to explain why they felt the way they did.