“Old South Carolina will Remember Sherman’s Desperado for a Many a Day ...”

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016

Union soldier’s letter written and signed by Josiah Bradford who enlisted in "C" Co. MO 32nd Infantry (date unknown). The 4pp. letter, on legal sized sheets, is datelined Goldsboro North Carolina, March 29, 1865. In part, “14 March – We crossed the Cape Fear River in Fayetteville and lay there till next day till the army got all past. Our brigade were left behind to guard the train and the army went on ... I witnessed a pretty hard battle which lasted till after day but we gave the Rebs a good whipping. They retreated leaving their dead and wounded and prisoners in our possession that was the first heavy engagement that we had on this expedition. We had several fights ... we whipped the whole combined rebel army. They had retreated for hundreds of miles and evacuated Charleston and lost Wilmington and had concentrated all the force they could to stop Sherman’s desperadoes and made a stand at Bentonville and we gave them the worst whipping they nearly ever had… We struck the railroad at Bomburg 12 miles west of Branchville and tore it up for many miles and marched towards Columbia. We had two or three days fighting there but we had rivers to cross in the face of the enemy and we had to pontoon them ... Our regiment opened fight there on the 14th of February and on the 17th we taken it and the wind was very high and the fire got out and the cotton burned blown all over the city and fired nearly the whole city. The soldiers were put to work to put it out and the citizens were at work trying to put it out with their fire engines but after all the greater effort of the city burned to the ground it was the greatest destruction I ever saw. It burned cattle, horses, hogs and some soldiers to death that was drunk ... a good many of them got drunk and put the fire out and they had some of our prisoners in jail and when we opened the jail they set fire to it before they came out and the negroes was seen firing houses there we got a large amount of negroes. They had run all the negroes from the vicinity of Charleston to Columbia thought we were going to Charleston so we caught them at Columbia and when we took Columbia and cut the railroad that took Charleston that place that our forces have been trying so long to take. ...Old South Carolina will remember Sherman’s desperado for a many a day and I don’t think she will want to rebel again soon. I don’t see but what there are thousands of families bound to starve where we have been but I don’t bother my brains any if they were all starving for they have caused me a good deal of trouble where if the had behaved themselves they might have all been doing well and me too. ...’

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