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For Information on Sherman's March bus tours, click here.
For a self guided tour Sherman's March through Columbia click here.
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In many ways, the city of Columbia remains much as it was in 1865. Because it was a planned city, all the streets are essentially the way they were when Sherman and his troops arrived. A number of the buildings and houses that survived the fire are still there. All of this offers one the ability to actually follow the route Sherman took into the city and stand where events took place within Columbia .
Visitors can start at Congaree Creek where Union and Confederate forces fought and proceed to the Gervais Street bridge where Union troops first saw the city and fired upon it. The ruins of Columbia Mills and the remnants of the Saluda River Bridge are next on the route before moving to the Broad River Bridge , essentially the same point where Sherman ’s Arm crossed to advance on Columbia .
A marker where Columbia ’s Mayor surrendered the city then sets the stage for the turn on the road leading directly in to the city. This view, minus the tall office buildings, is exactly the one Sherman and his men had as they approached the city. The granite State House, which Sherman spared, still bears the scars of Union cannon fire and dominates one’s view at the end of Main Street .
As described by David Conynham, Columbia still is a beautiful city today. One can easily walk the streets and be transformed back to the pre-fire days of 1865. The State House was completed and fulfills Major George Ward Nichols prediction, the Confederate Printing Plant was restored using the original brick walls, and General Oliver Howard’s headquarters still stands along with other pre-fire homes and mansions.
For more information on Columbia and South Carolina tourism opportunities and Civil War history, please see below. For hotel accommodations and other information about Columbia, go to www.columbiacvb.com.
HISTORIC SITES
Chestnut Cottage ( 1718 Hampton St .) Gen. James Chesnut and his wife Mary rented this house (circa 1850) in 1864 and 1865. Mary wrote much of her diary here. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a friend of the Chesnuts, stayed at this cottage and gave a speech to local citizens from the back porch on October 5, 1864 . Today the cottage serves as a bed and breakfast inn.
www.bbonline.com/sc/chestnut
Confederate Printing Plant (Huger and Gervais Streets) Built around 1863, the building was used to print Confederate money and postage stamps. Before Sherman arrived in Columbia most of the printing plates were thrown into the Columbia Canal . One plate survived and is in the S.C. State Museum . The building was partially destroyed by Sherman ’s troops but was rebuilt and purchased by the state after the war. It was used as a warehouse until the 1970s and is currently the location of a Publix grocery store.
Crawford-Clarkson House ( 1502 Blanding St.) Although spared from destruction, this house built in 1837 was ransacked while the family spent the night in the First Presbyterian Church cemetery.
DeBurhl-Marshall Mansion( 1401 Laurel St.) This mansion was built around 1820. Gen. Joseph Johnston used the house as his headquarters from 1864 to 1865. The attic timbers still show char marks from an attempt by Union soldiers to start a fire in the attic.
Elmwood Cemetery ( 501 Elmwood Ave. ) In September of 1862, city officials designated a portion of Elmwood Cemetery to be a Confederate burial ground. Approximately 175 Confederates are interred in the cemetery, most of whom are unknown, along with Generals Maxcy Gregg and Milledge Bonham. The last Confederate remains were laid to rest here in 1986. Additionally, Reconstruction Era Union Soldiers are buried next to the Confederate section.
First Baptist Church ( 1306 Hampton St.) The sanctuary of this church was completed in 1859, and it was here that the Secession Convention first met on December 17, 1860 .
First Presbyterian Church ( 1324 Marion St.) The present structure was built in 1853. Because the church’s spire was the tallest structure in Columbia at the time, Union artillerymen used it as target practice when firing their cannons from across the Congaree River . Although everything around it was destroyed in the fire, the First Presbyterian Church escaped destruction. Buried in the cemetery are the parents of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson; Columbia merchant Ainsley Hall; Jonathan Maxcy, the first president of SC College; and two U.S. Senators.
Governor’s Mansion ( 800 Richland St.) Built in 1855, this building served as a residence for officers of the Arsenal Military Academy . The building was used by Sherman ’s men in February of 1865 and thus was spared from burning. In 1868 it was designated as the official Governor’s Mansion and serves as the center of the Governor’s Greens.
http://www.scgovernorsmansion.org/scgovernorsmansion/index2.htm
Hampton-Preston Mansion ( 1615 Blanding St.) This home, built in 1818, epitomizes the lives of the planter elite in antebellum South Carolina . The house was used by Union General John Logan as his Columbia headquarters in February of 1865. Scheduled to be burned upon the Union Army’s departure, the house was saved by the quick thinking of Ursuline Convent’s mother superior, who demanded the structure to house her students since the Convent had been burned. The mansion reopened in 1970 as a historic house museum.
www.historiccolumbia.org
Horry-Guignard House ( 1527 Senate St.) Built before 1813, this house is one of the oldest in Columbia .
Lace House ( 800 Richland St.) Built in 1854, this house is located on the Governor’s Greens, which contains beautiful gardens and one other home, the Boylston House.
http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_news/050304.htm
Manns-Simon Cottage ( 1403 Richland St .) This circa late 1820’s cottage was owned by a former Charleston slave and mid-wife, Celia Mann, who bought her freedom and walked to Columbia to acquire the house around 1845. Celia Mann and her descendents owned the house until 1970. The house is now preserved as a historic house museum.
www.historiccolumbia.org
Maxcy Gregg House ( 1518 Richland St.) Maxcy Gregg was an active promoter of states’ rights and signer of the Ordinance of Secession. Gregg formed the 1 st SC Regiment in January 1861. During Sherman ’s occupation of Columbia , his home (circa 1840) was ransacked but escaped serious damage.
http://www.historiccolumbia.org/preservation/in_articles_maxcy.html
McCord House ( 1431 Pendleton St.) Built in 1849, this house became a clearinghouse for donated food and supplies for the hospital on the university’s campus, and part of the house was used as a hospital ward. It later served as headquarters for Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, commander of the Federal Army of the Tennessee and Sherman ’s second-in-command. The house was looted twice and set on fire but was saved from destruction because of Howard’s presence.
Mills House ( 1616 Blanding St.) This house, designed by Robert Mills, served as the Columbia Theological Seminary. During the war, the seminary rented dormitory space to Confederate refugees. Hospital supplies were stored in the institution’s chapel. While the city was burning, many Columbians fled to the school’s yard to escape the fire.
www.historiccolumbia.org
Palmetto Armory/Palmetto Ironworks ( 1802 Lincoln St.) Built around 1850. In 1851 the owners received a state contract to produce weapons, and the armory became the Palmetto Iron Works. The building was not destroyed during the fire on February 17, but Sherman ordered the building and machinery to be destroyed the next day. The shell of the building remained and was rebuilt.
Saluda Mills (Riverbanks Zoo & Garden ) The Saluda Manufacturing Company, chartered in 1834, was once one of the largest textile mills in the world and one of the oldest in South Carolina . The mill’s original investors built a four-story granite structure with a dam that covered the Saluda River . In 1855, Col. James G. Gibbs of Columbia bought the property and renamed the factory The Columbia Cotton Mill. Eighty looms and thousands of spindles were operated by up to 1,000 women turning out goods for the war effort. On February 16, 1865 , Union troops burned the building and destroyed the dam after crossing the Saluda River . The ruins are protected by the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden.
http://www.riverbanks.org/s08history/
Saluda River Bridge (Riverbanks Zoo & Garden ) This covered bridge was burned by the Confederates on February 16, 1865 , to impede the Union troops advance to the Broad River Bridge and crossing into Columbia . Gen. Logan’s XVth Corps laid a pontoon bridge and crossed the river under the protection of Union sharp shooters on the top floor of the Saluda Mill. The remains of the granite bridge abutments and supporting pier foundations can be seen from the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden's Saluda River Footbridge.
http://www.riverbanks.org/s08history/
S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Museum ( 301 Gervais St.) Founded in 1896 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, this is the oldest museum in the Columbia area. The museum focuses on South Carolina military history from the Revolutionary War to the present, emphasizing South Carolina 's Confederate era. It is currently housed in the same historic building as the South Carolina State Museum .
www.state.sc.us/crr/
S.C. State House (Gervais and Main Streets) Construction on this magnificent building began in 1856. By 1865 the exterior walls were finished, but the building still lacked a roof and interiors. The building was not destroyed during the occupation of Columbia because Sherman considered it “handsome” and decided to spare it. On the western and southern sides of the State House, stars mark where the walls were hit by Union cannonballs.
www.knowitall.org/letsgo/lgsh/sh_home.html
S.C. State Museum ( 301 Gervais St.) The fourth floor of the State Museum houses displays of Civil War swords, guns, and artifacts, along with a full-size replica of the CSS Hunley and a copy of the Ordinance of Secession
http://www.museum.state.sc.us/
Seibels-Hale-Elmore House ( 1601 Richland St.) This house is generally considered the oldest structure in the city of Columbia and is believed to have been built in 1796. It remained in the Seibels family from 1860 and 1984.
http://www.historiccolumbia.org/rentals/seibels.html
Surrender Monument ( River Dr. and Beaufort St.) At 10 a.m. on February 17, 1865 , Columbia Mayor Thomas Goodwyn met Union Colonel George Stone at this site to surrender the city. The Mayor received assurances that the city would be unharmed except for some public government buildings.
The “Horseshoe” ( Sumter and College Streets) This was the original campus of the University of South Carolina , the former South Carolina College founded in 1801. The four city blocks contain ten buildings, originating from the early 19th century. The buildings were used as classrooms until the Civil War when the college was closed because most of the students enlisted in the Army of the Confederacy. The buildings were used as a hospital during the war and, later housed both federal and state offices, as well as refugees and prisoners. The South Caroliniana Library’s holdings include the surrender note sent to General Sherman by Columbia Mayor Thomas Goodwyn and the original diaries of Mary Chestnut.
www.sc.edu/horseshoe/index.html
The Asylum ( Bull St. and Elmwood Ave. ) The original building of the State Hospital , completed in 1827, is located to the right of the main entrance. From December 1864 to February 1865, the Asylum grounds served as an encampment for Union POWs who had been kept at Camp Sorghum . On the night of February 17, 1865 , many families went to the lawn of the Asylum to escape the fire.
http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/history.htm
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral ( 100 Sumter St.) The present structure was constructed in 1846 as a replica of York Minister in York , England . During the Civil War, the iron spikes on top of the cathedral were melted to make cannonballs for the Confederacy. The parsonage and Sunday school buildings were destroyed during the war, but the sanctuary was not seriously damaged. A plaque on the wall is dedicated to the members of the church who died for the Confederacy. Five South Carolina governors, three Confederate generals (Wade Hampton III, Ellison Capers, and States Rights Gist), and the unofficial “poet laureate of the Confederacy” Henry Timrod, are all buried in the Trinity cemetery.
http://www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org/home/index.asp
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