vicinity of Main street, and spread rapidly. I learned, moreover, that quantities of liquor had been given to the soldiers by certain people who hoped in this manner to conciliate them and get their protection, and it is certainly true that many of our men and some of our officers were too much under the influence of drink to allow them to properly discharge their duty. Strenuous efforts, however, were made to arrest the flames. General Woods sent in a fresh brigade, and afterward General Hazen still another. During the night I met Generals Logan, Woods, and other general officers, and they were taking every possible measure to stop the fire and prevent disorder. N escaped prisoners, convects from the penitentiary just broken open, army followers, and drunken soldiers ran through house after house, and were doubtless guilty of all manner of villainies, and it is these men that I presume set new fires farther and farther to the windward in the northern part of the city. Old men, women, and children, with everything they could get out, were herded together in the streets. At some places we found officers and kind-hearted soldiers protecting families from the insults and roughness of the careless. Meanwhile the flames made fearful ravages and magnificent residences and churches were consumed in a very few minutes. After about two-thirds of the city, all the business part of the town, including the old State House, had been destroyed, the wind shifted to the east and the fire was stayed. The next morning showed very little of Columbia except a blackened surface peopled with numerous chimneys and an occasional house that had been spared as if by a miracle. I believe that the rebels, who blew up the depot, scattered the cotton over the city, and set fire to it, and took no reasonable precaution to prevent the destruction of Columbia, are responsible precaution to prevent the destruction of Columbia, are responsible for the suffering of the people. Neither the general-in-chief nor any of his lieutenants have ever sanctioned any conduct so evidently against the dictates of humanity. The Seventeenth Corps followed the Fifteenth across the Saluda and Broad and encamped outside of the city to the northeast. The Fifteenth Corps encamped to the east and south, except the garrison of the city.

During the 18th and 19th the command remained in the vicinity of Columbia and were engaged in destroying the public buildings, such as the railroad depot, the arsenals, machine shops, armory with a large quantity of machinery, a powder mill that had everything in running order, three large store-houses for ammunition and ordnance stores, &c. A list of the ordnance and ordnance stores destroyed or made use of from Columbia will be attached to this report. While the men were removing the shells from the arsenal to the river a terrible accident occurred. A percussion shell was carelessly thrown down the bank amongst others when it exploded, killing and wounding some 15 men from General John E. Smith's division. Te railroad was destroyed southward completely as far as Mill Creek by the commands of Generals Hazen and Corse. General Corse continued the work as far as Cedar Creek, and his mounted men burned the trestle-work and forced the enemy to destroy the railroad bridge across the Wateree. The road was completely destroyed for fifteen miles and partially for forty. Meanwhile General Blair was at work upon the railroads northward.

Monday, February 20, the command commenced its march northward. General Logan's column made a detour, via Roberts' Cross-Roads and Muddy Springs, his head of column reaching Rice Creek. General Blair followed the railroad, destroying it as he went, having made a march of fifteen or sixteen miles. The next day General Blair continued the same work to within five or six miles of Winnsborough, and