The Diary Of Emma LeConte is a powerful and inspiring book. LeConte captures the burning of Columbia during the Civil War in such a vivid way that it leaves an impression stained in your mind.
After demolishing Atlanta so that the Rebels could not return to use it as a base, Sherman with 62,000 men swung across Georgia, destroying economic resources as he went. Sherman then came out at a point on the coast (probably some where near Savannah, Georgia) were the navy opened up a base for him. From there, he would march to join Grant before Richmond.
Sherman is his correspondence often referred to the operation as a "raid." This was a raid on a gigantic scale, that was not against the communications of an enemy army. This was a raid against the economic resources of an enemy civilian population. It was modern war, swift, terrible and merciless in which LeConte captured many feelings of hope, sorrow, and hatred. .
We start off on December 31st, 1864 in Columbia, South Carolina. Here we see the first sign of worry about the Yankees coming into the Carolina's. LeConte shows love and concern for her father in these first few days in which she receives letters from him that keeps them posted on where the Yankees are currently at. She tells of accounts of "outrages and horrors" that have happened in Milledgeville.
Around the 12th or 13th of February was when many panic-stricken people overflowed into the streets of the town. Many of the family's belongings were beginning to be moved out of the house at this time. Her father later unpacks all of his books and puts them back on the shelves. He said that they would just ravage through the boxes anyway so why put them away.
Near February 15th, they start to hear cannons. This is a progression towards the annihilation that is to come. She tells of accounts of shells flying past her head and exploding. On February 17th General Sherman assured the Mayor "that he and all the citizens may sleep as securely and quietly tonight as if under Confederate rule.
