The events that followed Columbia's surrender can best be understood by reading excerpts of a diary entry by 17-year-old Emma LeConte:.
General Sherman has assured the mayor, that [he and all .
the citizens can sleep well because] private property shall.
be carefully respected .At about seven o"clock, I was standing.
on the back piazza in the third story. On one side the sky was.
illuminated by the burning of General Hampton's residence.
a few miles off in the country. On the other side, Sumter .
Street was so brightly lighted by a burning house so near our .
piazza that we could feel the heat. By the red glare we could.
watch the wretches walking, generally staggering, back and .
forth from the camp to the town shouting, hurrahing, cursing.
South Carolina, swearing --blaspheming, singing ribald songs .
and using such obscene language that we were forced to go .
indoors. The fire on Main Street was now raging and we.
anxiously watched it progress from the upper windows , the.
wind blew a fearful gale, waffling the flames from house to .
house with frightful rapidity. By midnight the whole town .
was wrapped in one huge blaze (LeConte).
The flag that now flies above the State Capitol Building in Columbia, which still bears the scars of Union artillery from that infamous day, is South Carolina's historical marker (Capture of Columbia). It serves as a symbolic reminder of faith lost by innocent people, retribution served, bravery, and solidarity of experience to name but a few emotions which came out of that one day in time. People with deep feelings rally around that flag.
True, to many people the flag of the South is regarded as a symbol of racial strife; however, Cohen's statement that South Carolina is "America's most racist state" is unfounded. He supports this claim with the statement that "South Carolina is the only state in the nation that does not observe Martin Luther King Day." If non-observance of the King Day is a measuring stick, could Lindenwood University be considered America's most racist school? King Day is not a recognized holiday here, either.
