When Sherman Rode Into Columbia, S.C., an Escaped Union POW Handed Him a Note. Here's the Words.

Major General William T. Sherman's forces entered Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on Feb. 17, 1865. As Sherman rode through the conquered city he met numerous individuals, including escaped Union prisoners of war. One of these bedraggled men handed him a note. Sherman stuffed into his pocket and read it later. The words on the piece of paper were the lyrics of a song written by the man pictured here.
"Life on the Civil War Research Trail" is hosted by Ronald S. Coddington, Editor and Publisher of Military Images magazine. Learn more about our mission to showcase, interpret and preserve Civil War portrait photography at militaryimagesmagazine.com and shopmilitaryimages.com.
This episode is brought to you in part by Frohne's Historic Military: Authentic history you can trust! Visit modoc1873.stores.yahoo.net for more.
Image: Mahaska County Historical Society, Oskaloosa, Iowa
This channel is a member of the KZbin Partner Program. Your interest, support, and engagement is key, and I'm grateful for it. Thank you!

[@lakemurray7239]

My great-grandfather was a 14 year old guard at the POW camp in Columbia. He died in 1943 and was one of the last surviving veterans in SC. I wish I could have known him.

[@anotheryoutubechannel4809]

Wow. Very cool.

[@davedammann741]

Bless his heart...😮

[@Kenneth-c4j]

Wow! I'll bet that he had some fascinating stories to tell.

[@NoBody-xg1wg]

My maternal grandmother was a niece of Col. Nelson A. Miles.

[@ukulelemikeleii]

Scraps and bits of paper were the emails of the 1860s!

[@jonncockrell3606]

The telegraph had made it possible for information to travel much quicker than before.

[@markharwell8793]

One brother wore blue One brother wore gray One brother went One brother stayed One brother's here One brother's there Oh, where shall I fight Oh, what shall I wear? I'm gonna wear my tight blue pants And my gray sport jacket And stay at home with the girls Now, now, now I don't want to get to Gettysburg No, no, no, no I got a protest sign And a bottle of wine And my baby and I are gonna Go, go, go, go Now, Grant and Lee Don't mean nothin' to me And fightin's nothin' but a bore I'll wear my tight blue pants And my gray sport jacket And to hell with the Civil War

[@gabet945]

Figures that a guy wearing tight blue pants would write this.

[@anotheryoutubechannel4809]

@@gabet945😂😂😂😂

[@billmcghee7680]

​@@gabet945cut off the blood flow to a couple places, too. Oh well, he was able to hit all the highest notes, for sure.

[@jimdecamp7204]

The lesson here is, if you can't be useful, at least be pleasant company.

[@anotheryoutubechannel4809]

😂 yep.

[@brianmcfarland4854]

Byers was a first cousin of my great-grandmother, they were both born in 1838 in western Pennsylvania. My father remembered when he was a young boy an elderly man came to visit relatives in the area. This was Byers come to visit family where he had been born near Pulaski, PA, probably in the mid- to late 20's.

[@georgeborkenhagen4281]

Amazing!

[@alanaadams7440]

Thanks for sharing your story

[@joellenbroetzmann9053]

As a person who had folks on both sides of the war, including a slave owner, an abolitionist, a slave, and a POW in Andersonville, every one of them a grandparent in my lines, I full well know war IS hell.

[@smcm4588]

Allowing 20 years family growth.. 1838, 58, 78, 98, 1918, 38, 58, 78, 98, 2018.. =180 years. A grtgrand (and grt1st cousin) ma born in 1838.. ... you would have to have been born in 1898.. and you would be 126 years old today. Please re-calc the quantity of 'Greats' you refer to in your family.

[@Gimmee3Steps]

Cool! I grew up just north of Pittsburgh and used to fish the river near Pulaski. It’s not a very big town at all.

[@timswope8423]

Confederate states burned cotton bales when union forces entered southern cities to prevent union from confiscation and sale of bales (10k).

[@TerryV06]

With disastrous results…. Aka Atlanta and Richmond

[@hubertwalters4300]

​@@TerryV06 Well that's war,when the enemy is advancing into your country, you destroy everything that could be of use to the enemy.

[@TerryV06]

@@hubertwalters4300 very true.. somehow the blame has been shifted to ravaging Union troops though.

[@thomasfort2051]

That’s BS . Atlanta and Columbia were occupied by Federal troops and were burned as the troops left. Troops were also sent out to burn surrounding civilian homes. Funny how you twist that the Southerners burned their own cities and homes.

[@thomasfort2051]

@@TerryV06 Foraging = robbery , What do you think the civilian population had left to eat when the Federal Troops robbed or destroyed all the food, plus the shelter?

[@cpklapper]

My paternal grandmother’s maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Caroline Maria Sherman, a distant cousin of the General and his brother, the Senator. Thank you for this touching story of our Cousin Cump.

[@billgrewe8340]

Great story. It traveled well. All the way to to 2024 with its magic intact.

[@HarryWHill-GA]

Thank you for that video. The American Civil War was, mercifully, the last conflict where I know I had relatives on both sides of a battle.

[@jonncockrell3606]

Lucky. I had relatives on both sides of the World Wars as I, an American, am a mix of English,Irish and German. Some had come to America by the time I was born. But I didn't understand the stories until much later in life and they were gone.

[@HarryWHill-GA]

@@jonncockrell3606 We all get here by different paths. I only have to live another 10 years or so to have both sides of my family here for 400+ years. We were the original EuroTrash, thrown out before the rush. The only good thing was that land prices were low when they arrived.

[@PAMELAPORTER-ci7mr]

​@@HarryWHill-GA Same with my father's side, but I prefer to view them as explorers & entrepreneurs. ; )

[@barbarataylor8101]

And so the U.S. chooses to take down the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. We will never forget.

[@HarryWHill-GA]

@@barbarataylor8101 Not the US, the current US administration. Elections have consequences. Vote like your life depends on it. It may. Your freedom certainly does.

[@kevinpritchard3592]

WOW, that is an excellent piece of history brought back to us. Thank you for your excellent work.

[@abelincoln3261]

I can't help but wonder how easily insanity and criminality and valor are easily combined in war !

[@mandoguy726]

If you mean that Sherman was a traitorous horrible person and a war criminal then I agree.

[@jameslemes8397]

They information I gained here in from this story changes so much what was feed to us in school in the 1940-70's 😧 Making Sherman a tyrannical Military General Burning his way through every encounter and city. This presents a compassionate side I had not attributed to him or his match ... Thank you Whereas History is often written by the victor, many times the scholars might have an axe to grind or mark to make. ... God Bless America ... May we all deserve the HUGE Sacrifice that Hundreds of Thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians gave to secure what we now enjoy without much afterthought or attention in our own growing problems. Amen

[@DavidBenner-cy4zl]

One of my great great grand fathers marched with Sherman to the Sea. Indiana artillery attached to an Ohio infantry regiment. Wounded five times.

[@utoobia]

How many civilian homes did he burn?

[@mulvey0731]

That’s too bad

[@mandoguy726]

Are you proud of this?

[@DavidBenner-cy4zl]

@@mandoguy726 he did what any "good" Democrat or progressive would do.

[@michaelfritts6249]

My gg grandpa lost his eye in the Battle of Perryville. One brother died in Resaca. Another was with General Sherman to the end. They beat the traitors to our Great Nation!!

[@jonBrown-k4p]

great reading Ron, you took us there...

[@mikemcmanus116]

Great story. I love learning of the personal accounts of those who participated.

[@inyobill]

Sherman's (and even more Grant's) memoirs are well worth reading.

[@oldgeezerproductions]

Thanks for another winner Ron. Would it be possible to do some research into the song's intended melody? I would very much like to know the melody to which these lyrics would be sung to. As it stands, it is a wonderful and clever panegyric poem, but it would be more pleasurable and more easily memorized if it could be sung to a tune. I know that there were many such songs in those days (when people had to make their own music) that were sung to older Irish, Scottish, French, German and English Folk tunes, in addition to the very popular Steven Foster melodies of the day.

[@RichardDCook]

That's exactly what I was wondering about. Some of the most well-known songs we have today, such as The Star-Spangled Banner and Amazing Grace, were simply sets of words, poems, with no melody whatsoever. Both of these were married to various melodies as time went on, and at some point became associated with the tunes we associate with them today (To Anacreon in Heaven, and New Britain, respectively). What might be done, if the original tune can't be found, is to marry it to a popular tune of that time that suits the meter of the lyrics. It was done with the early 19th century sea-song The Baltimore, of which only the lyrics survived. Married to a strong shanty-tune it makes a wonderful song. (I read that later the original tune was discovered, as it happens not nearly as nice as the old shanty-tune!)

[@JayTee0007]

My great great great grandfather fought in the battle at Gettysburg. I am in my mid sixties and found this out through geneology a year ago. I am originally from and grew up in Western Pennsylvania.

[@mikelouis9389]

We western Pennsylvanians definitely represented in the civil war. I to am in my very late sixties was told how my great great grandfather was in the south purchasing horses when the war broke out. He basically traveled the underground railroad back north and became a Captain of Cavalry and was a noted marksman even from atop horseback. He got his commission from his stables, he earned it with accurate lead.

[@jguenther3049]

My grandfather was 7 years old at the time of the Gettysburg battle. My youngest son was born 120 years after my grandfather.

[@cliffpage7677]

My mother's mother's side of the family defended their homes and churches at Brabams Bridge in the Low County below Orangburg on the Edisto. Sherman burned the Baptist Church to the ground and the homes of the five klans that made up the community. Sherman was a monster! South Carolinians and other Southerners have an oderous regard for Sherman that can only be surpassed by that of the Sioux, Crow, Cheyhan, and other Native Americans that came under the treatment of those who learned Sherman's practice of total war, Sheridan, Crow, Custer and others.

[@mikelouis9389]

@@cliffpage7677 And Y'all were such saints. If you hadn't started it, Sherman wouldn't have needed to finish it.

[@houstonvanhoy2198]

@jaytee0007 I am 73 years old. My great grandfather was wounded in Pickett's Charge, but survived and fought in several later battles. He was paroled at Appomattox Courthouse, and like many other CSA infantrymen, had to walk home to Stanly County, NC. He and his wife produced four sons and four daughters. He lived until 1935. My other great- grandfather - also from Stanly County, NC - was killed at Gettysburg, but apparently had at least one daughter - my grandmother - before joining the CSA. 🇺🇲 God bless the USA, and all who live here.

[@EruditeDM]

I’m a Texas A&M Aggie but I’ve been to a football game in Columbia before. Bet the note said “Go Cocks!!” #SEC 😂👍🏼

[@babbarr77]

I lived in Columbia for five years. I attended a basketball game at the university, On the bottoms of the underpants the cheerleaders wore for Columbia was printed: “Go Cocks”.

[@needsaride15126]

That was such a great story.

[@douglasslist3200]

Great piece. Very much helps to bring history into realism.

[@Waynegilchrist-r2h]

The story is excellent but I am alarmed at the atrocious misspelling of several key words. There is a casual, if not cavalier air of ignorance and neglect that reflects a dark downturn in our country's education in the last 25 or so years. We used to have, and maintained a reading and comprehension level in this country on par with an eighth grade education level. But it is so sad to see how much lower that reading and comprehension level is now. The transcript has several key words that are so butchered that it destroys the story. For example: in lieu of the word "bales," which is referring to cotton bales, it reads "bells" which is an instrument for a musical note. Then there's the word "Lee," which being capitalized refers to some one's name and should have read, "lea" which in this case would refers to a grassy open area or field. This is only the tip of the iceberg of social media spelling. Our education system has dumbed down several generations and it needs to be overhauled and returned to it's former standards.

[@yvonnephillips3888]

My forefathers fought against Sherman. As Sherman marched towards Charleston, any Confederate solders left in hopes of diverting the union soldiers away. Also Sherman did his early training at Fort Moultrie in Charleston and made friends with many families there. That was two reasons he did not obliterate Charleston as he did Atlanta.

[@yb-rk5oh]

same with savannah

[@bremenrooster]

Sherman was the first President of the Louisiana Military Academy….now LSU! He hated the fact that war broke out and he had to leave his friends down there! Also, it is being proven now that Sherman…did not BURN Columbia, SC….escaping Rebels did….by lighting bales of cotton on fire. Another fact: in the March to the Sea….approx 2500 Federal Troops were killed and only 1500 Rebel guerillas. Just FYI to break down more Sherman myths!

[@davidoneil858]

00⁰

[@rickbrant4285]

And Columbia..... that letter us pure propaganda. Drunk Yankee soldiers burned the city

[@mandoguy726]

Your forefathers were Valiant heroes fighting for a righteous cause and you should be proud.

[@waynefoster6964]

I find this song very interesting and brings it closer to home for me. It mentions Resaca Georgia. That's where my ancestor Pvt. William White (118th Ohio) was wounded and eventually died of his wounds. He was part of Gen. Scofield failed attack. Thank you for sharing that story!

[@georgeparris8293]

why don't you read the part of his memior where he rescued a lady who had a book signed by Sherman....Sherman could have recovered all the men at Andersonville while he was chilling in Atlanta...but he did not because they would slow him down.....

[@markkinsler4333]

Gen Sherman was born and grew up just around the corner from here. Lancaster, Ohio, long a Confederate stronghold, did not appreciate him much. There's a small statue of the gentleman downtown, just standing there holding his hat. Ohio offered to erect a far larger, equestrian statue around 1900, but the locals refused it. Check out the across the street from the Plaza Hotel (in Central Park, actually) in New York City. Sherman never came back to Lancaster..

[@MrIronose]

They pronounce it LANK-ister. I grew up in Newark, pronounced Nerk.

[@joanwalter6551]

Does anyone have a musical score to this poem ?

[@swampybman7741]

Sherman was not know for being a gentleman nor burden with mercy. Many a Union loyalist suffered greatly from his tactics in the south.

[@TomSpeaks-vw1zp]

@@MrIronose You pronounced both correctly. I was born and raised in Lankister😂 The Palace theatre was across the street from The Sherman House. On either side of the movie screen were huge murals. One side was an Indian chief. The other a portrait of Robert E. Lee facing the Sherman house. That’s how divided that area was during the Civil War.

[@TomSpeaks-vw1zp]

@@swampybman7741 But his troops loved Uncle Billy. There’s always two sides to every coin as well as stories. That was no ordinary war. And you did what you had to do. Some swore he was insane. But he got the job done. He was accused of burning Atlanta when in fact the fleeing Confederate army started the fires. As far a pillaging the towns, and farms along the way, when you have 60+ thousand troops under your command you can’t control everything. And they need to eat. It was war!

[@davidlee8551]

“ A song from the American Civil War. In September 1864 General Sherman advanced from Chattanooga to Atlanta and then cut a swath of desolation through central Georgia to Savannah. After reaching his objective on the Georgia coast in December, he turned North, where hundreds of ragged Federal soldiers in Charleston Jail were eagerly awaiting their freedom. One of them, Lieutenant S. H. M. Byers, composed this song. Although he wrote a tune, it was more frequently sung to the Irish melody of "Rosin the Beau". The song became a big hit in the North, appearing in thousands of copies of song sheets and songbooks.” More at: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5XZp4ikia-bask&pp=ygUhU29uZyAtIFNoZXJtYW4ncyBtYXJjaCB0byB0aGUgc2Vh

[@cfjohnson7369]

As I recall, the SC statehouse has several bronze stars on one side, to mark where Gen. Sherman's cannon balls struck. The population did not want to forget!

[@JohnOliver100]

Indeed! I live near Columbia. The bronze stars are still there and across the river there is marker where Sherman's canons stood.

[@TheScotsman1977]

And your assessment?

[@jarredsdad]

Excellent! Thank you!

[@98f12-h7g]

Most of the men in the South did not own slaves . Only the very wealthy plantation owners but we all surfed .

[@karenpowers3319]

For following the traitors to the country.

[@unclejamo94553]

We? How old are you?

[@dmac2782]

Charlie don't surf!!

[@dmac2782]

Charlie don't surf!

[@apacheworrier3776]

@@karenpowers3319 Slavery wasn’t even mentioned as a cause until 3 years into the war. (Emancipation Proclamation) Lincoln offered to make slavery a constitutional right before the war started, if the south would agree to a 25% tax on cotton exports. Our ancestors were killed over a tax dispute less than 100 years after the revolution.

[@RonSharpe-v8r]

My great grandfather was in Sherman's Army, and I have lived in the area they conquered since 1961.

[@milkywayan2232]

@user-yd3cx1ih6b- Did you try getting a discount on your land?

[@unclejamo94553]

Conquered, or liberated?

[@mandoguy726]

Why would you be proud of this? And conquered is definitely the word.

[@amadeusamwater]

Us Iowa folks are very creative...

[@rb1179]

As someone that's done RAGBRAI a dozen times, I agree!

[@amadeusamwater]

@@rb1179 Good man. We like repeat riders.

[@cht2162]

We Iowa folks...

[@stevensapyak7971]

6.19.24. ⛹🏻‍♀️Caitlin Clark … the WNBA’s💁🏻‍♂️Larry Bird™️

[@Steve-gx9ot]

​@@stevensapyak7971she is nowhere near Bird level! Get real

[@josetomatostv5718]

Wow. I was rapt! What a story! Thank you!!!

[@russwayne2132]

I was born and raised in Columbia, my family on my mother's side going back at least four generations in Columbia and nearby Lexington County. My grandmother told me that she remembered stories from her grandmother telling of Sherman's march through Columbia, and no one was singing songs. She said; "Everyone was hiding their good silver because them damn Yankees was stealing everything they could get their hands on".

[@MyelinProductions]

WOW! THANK YOU! Amazing! Great history and insights. Very Good Useful information of real actual historical events. ~ Be Safe out there folks ~ Peace & Health to Us All.

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Wonderful song....Thanks very much..... Old F-4 Phantom ll pilot Shoe🇺🇸

[@hatfieldmain]

Thank you for posting

[@CHAZAGE]

Well, all I can say, that Capt Rhett Butler, at Tara, warned the South about what was to come! They didn't listen!🤪

[@johnharris8191]

And then he fought for the South.

[@delstanley1349]

If anyone wants to hear the song's melody accompanied by voice and acoustic guitar there is a KZbinr --- raymondcrooke video titled "Sherman's March to the Sea (by SHM Byers)" you can check out.

[@paulginsberg6942]

Wonderful living history. We have changed.

[@feralbluee]

Thank you for this history lesson :). It made Sherman a human being and not the General he is made out to be. The southerners set fire to their own cotton. It was Sherman’s soldiers who went wild, although, could he have stopped them? He set free Union soldiers, thank goodness - the southern prisons were horrific!! And he had compassion for others - e.g. Bryers :) My first time here - very well done. Have a great day! :) ☁️🌷🌱

[@ChrisKimbro-k7z]

Ever heard of Camp Lookout?

[@ChrisKimbro-k7z]

Sherman was a terrorist. Nothing else.

[@FullRaidersAlchemist]

Native Americans, not so much....

[@redcossack245]

Another great show. Many of my family members fought Sherman all the way to around Atlanta and one chased him on his march to the sea. Ah well, by gones are by gones. Great show.

[@OnTheOnlyShipButHalfWannaSink]

“Bygones are bygones” - a sentiment I admire, but rarely hear these days, and even more rarely see in action.

[@ontherocks23]

FWIW, a slightly different account of the out-of-control fires in Columbia was that evacuating Confederate military leaders advised city leaders to destroy all liquor supplies in advance of the arrival of occupying Union forces. Apparently, the city leaders failed to do this and later, drunken Union soldiers, bent on punishing South Carolina for starting the war, set fire to cotton bales, which then spread to numerous buildings. Apparently, as the city had surrendered, the burning of Columbia was not intentional. Note: this account was in a book - read decades ago - about the closing months of the war. (The author and title escape my memory, at the moment.) Apparently, the Union soldiers wanted to advance on and burn Charleston in revenge, but the Union forces bypassed Charleston to proceed north towards Richmond, VA.

[@alancourtney4000]

I read another account put together by journals of the citizens of Columbia that substantiate your statements. While WTS did not sanction or order the atrocities committed by his troops, the fact remains that they occurred and were committed by troops that fell in with his forces as they took the war to the south in order to shorten the war. Most of the carnage that occurred in Columbia was instigated by drunken troops from the Ohio brigades as was documented by many of the private journals. The southern troops that were on duty in Columbia had departed weeks before to shore up the defense of Charlotte where the Confederates thought that he would go next. He went to Fayetteville, instead. Ohio troops were less than humane to the former slaves in Columbia as was reported in the journals. I wasn't there so I can neither confirm nor deny the veracity of these journals. I can, however, agree that history is written or fabricated by the victors. As a disclaimer, and as I understand, WTS was a devout man and was loyal to his troops. Unfortunately some of the soldiers that fell in with his march to the sea were not as devout nor were they as humane.

[@rafehr1378]

As a Nevadan. Nevada sent Silver, gold, and men to the North, to fight the South. How Nevada became a state in the United States.

[@benevolencia4203]

🫡🇺🇸👍🏽

[@NJMerlin]

There was a “Bonanza” episode about that.

[@delstanley1349]

The song written in 1864/65 I guess it is safe to assume that he won't be demonetized by KZbin for copyright infringement🙂

[@scottmckenna9164]

On the highway driving and in politics….ASSUME NOTHING!

[@genespell4340]

There is a good possibility that the song never got submitted for a copyright.

[@delstanley1349]

@@genespell4340 >It was meant only as a joke.

[@hsiehkanusea]

A lot of truth in jest. If an ASCAP/RIAA patent troll hears of it, I suspect they'll "reach out" to the channel.

[@milkywayan2232]

@delstnley1349. Oh. I thought jokes were supposed to be funny.

[@jameshorn270]

Most of my family was Pennsylvania Dutch, with a few Quakers scattered in, but one, the son of a Union militia colonel, became a minister called to serve a church in Charleston S C, where he married the daughter of a Confederate captain. The Confederate branch of the family learned that Sherman was advancing from Savannah, figured that he was certain to make his main target their city, so they shipped most of their valuables up country to their plantation to the NE of Columbia for safety. Naturally, Sherman, did the unexpected and bypassed Charleston, took Coumbia, and continued straight across their plantation. Thus, we have relatively few heirlooms from that branch of our ancestors.

[@janetprice85]

Sherman marched right down the road to Savannah past multiple members of my Mom's families's farms and businesses. The men were off fighting. The irony is my Mom married a boy in WW2 who's midwestern family was with the Illinois Union soldiers with Sherman marching past her families's homes.

[@xisotopex]

wow to live that long and witness so many changes...

[@RMAli23]

Nice song. Sherman must have been quite pleased.

[@delstanley1349]

And I always thought the phrase "Sherman's March to the Sea" was a phrase used by historians AFTER the war. So Sherman was a legend in song in his own time! So much so that a prisoner of war (confederate prisoner at that) knew of Sherman's movements and where he was going and had time to get pen AND paper and still have enough of cheery soul to write an ode or song.

[@stevesnider4251]

​@delstanley1349. The author of the song was a Union soldier held prisoner in Charleston.

[@delstanley1349]

@@stevesnider4251 >Yes, I knew that from watching the video, but I guess I was too clumsy in my wording. I should have said a "prisoner of the confederates" instead of a "confederate prisoner." I was using it in the sense of saying "Al Capone was a federal prisoner," meaning he was a prisoner of the feds, or "James Bonds is a British spy," meaning he is a spy of/for the British government, but I can easily see where the confusion comes in despite the context in the video. Thanx, my bad.

[@mitchellhawkes22]

Nice Civil War interlude, with a musical side story. We're so glad you didn't try to sing it, Ron. You've got a good, sincere, gravelly voice for documentary. We appreciate what you bring. But music is a refined and different discipline. Leave it to the inmates. Whose fans were the Southern Belles.

[@PYN111]

Wondering why the song doesn’t mention the 20 mile wide path Sherman burned throughout the South, destroying homes, farms, livestock, not to mention all the lives his hateful march took through the already conquered south land. I suppose he is still rotting in Hell.

[@WhydoIsuddenlyhaveahandle]

You need to read a history book. He specifically spared human lives. Do you think warfare operates by rules where those who play by them win? Awfully childish view of the world. More end up dying for nothing when you operate like that There are only two "rules." 1 is no senseless killing of noncombatants. The second is to do anything else to achieve victory. The South started it to defend slavery. Gross. They fired the first shots. It ended when it did thanks to people with courage like Grant and Sherman to do what needed to be done, or more would have died.

[@Gravitycreatedlife]

Sherman's March to the Sea was an American Civil War campaign lasting from November 15 to December 21, 1864, in which Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman led troops through the Confederate state of Georgia, pillaging the countryside and destroying both military outposts and civilian properties.

[@jamescook7713]

Northern war criminals, NOT soldiers.

[@chilidogg2047]

​@jamescook7713 , Yes, intentionally targeting and attacking civilians is a war crime. A couple years ago, I read a well-documented book about war crimes against the South, both black and white people. It matters not what you think of the cause of either side, they are facts. Of course, war itself is a crime.

[@stevesnider4251]

​@@jamescook7713......said the American taitors.

[@yuckyool]

​@@keithmarlowe5569Kennesaw Mountain?

[@yuckyool]

@@keithmarlowe5569 Reason I enjoy history --- always more facts and interpretations being considered. So much I don't know. Was at Chattanooga and Vicksburg recently.

[@winnon992]

The Geneva Convention had just been formed in the early 1860’s. in Europe. I’ve read If it had had a few more years Sherman would have probably been one of the first prosecuted under their laws. He burned and allowed his troops to pillage from the citizens all across the Southeast. Civilian’s starved because of his actions. Remember, The winner writes the History Books. They omit these parts.

[@alanlight7740]

Yes, though there had been widely recognized laws of war in Europe and America for centuries before Sherman came along. It was British violations of these laws in South Carolina during the Revolution which were largely responsible for the backlash which ultimately secured independence for all the united States. As they left Columbia the Union troops burned the city to the ground, leaving all - black and white - destitute and homeless.

[@GeorgeIngersoll-cj9ok]

Sherman should have been a model soldier, like Anderson and Quantrel. Rite.??

[@winnon992]

@@GeorgeIngersoll-cj9ok ALot if that’s who got to tell the story. I know it was a movie but Outlaw Josie Wales can tell you a lot. It’s probably more factual than what the powers to be have printed in their books. I wonder what you’d be reading if the Nazis had won WW2 ?

[@alanlight7740]

@@GeorgeIngersoll-cj9ok - Quantrill was reacting to Union soldiers killing non-combatants including women. Even so the Confederate government cut ties to him because of his war crimes. By contrast, Lincoln repeatedly promoted officers who committed war crimes against civilians.

[@GeorgeIngersoll-cj9ok]

@@alanlight7740 must be a Democrat, rewriting history again

[@curtgomes]

Quite an episode. I would really loved to have heard the POW glee club sing this song. Thanks for doing this research…...

[@jefferyhorton7496]

See The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly! Lol!

[@snowman333-]

this is the first time I have heard of Sherman's march in anything but a negative connotation. thank you

[@veramae4098]

Sherman's Army liberated Andersonville, a POW camp for Union prisoners. Conditions had been horrible. It was after this that Sherman showed no mercy.

[@TisiphonesShadow]

@@veramae4098 Maybe he should have toured Camp Douglas and Elmira, plus a few other large Union POW camps. He might have changed sides.

[@leonwhitesell4849]

My gggrand father starved to death in Fortress Monroe as a Union soldier from PA, leaving a widow with three children! 🇺🇸 ✝️🇺🇸❤️

[@janetprice85]

When they got to Savannah Union soldiers wrote home complaining" all they had to eat was rice everlasting rice at every meal". Savannah was surrounded by rice plantations as was many coastal areas from north Florida to SC. Rice is the potatoes of east Georgia. My grandmother served virtually it at every meal with peas,okra tomato gumbo,with gravy and fried chicken,etc. Probably why Chinese food is a favorite in the south.

[@jamescook7713]

Sherman, war criminal.

[@AsaTrenchard1865]

The commandant of Andersonville was a Swiss guy named Wirtz.

[@chrism3872]

He was also hanged as a war criminal after the war...

[@susanschaffner4422]

Great story.

[@rogerdavies6226]

thank you

[@Eagle-bc1lj]

Shame on you history man for failing to reveal the monstrous truth and framing one of the most evil men in the war as a hero. Shame on you.

[@fredferd965]

Considering modern times as they are today, and then hearing this, I fear that we have lost something, something very important and very wonderful along the way. What it is we will never know, and will never understand, unless we discover it again....

[@OnTheOnlyShipButHalfWannaSink]

War never ends, even if it appears cold for a time. And yet there’s time for many to live.

[@jameskipp1657]

If he was a prisoner of war how would he have known about Sherman's march to the Sea? He composes this and just happens to give it to Sherman the day he entered Columbia? Are we supposed to actually believe this account?

[@garykelder]

The blogger stated the man who wrote the note was one of a group of escaped prisoners. If they escaped prior to Sherman arriving with Union soldiers, he could have learned of Sherman’s impending arrival.

[@andrewmartin6217]

Yeah. Just like we’re supposed to believe The War of Northern Aggression was just about slavery. Sherman was a war criminal.

[@scottwhitcher265]

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,... ...that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Seems like the South had every right to succeed...

[@digitalnomad9985]

They may have had a right to secede, but it was up to them to succeed.

[@WhydoIsuddenlyhaveahandle]

If only they weren't using those words to uphold slavery, they would have. The original copy of the Declaration condemned the slave trade. To use those words to protect slavery is incompatible with the spirit of the document.

[@tamer1773]

Always interesting. Especially the biographic details of the people involved.

[@ukulelemikeleii]

And now for my third and final comment: what were the circumstances behind Byers capture? Was he taken prisoner during the Battles of Atlanta, or during the March to the Sea?

[@lifeonthecivilwarresearchtrail]

Byers and about 80 others from his regiment were captured at the November 1863 Battle of Missionary Ridge.

[@philipbaity7083]

War is Hell!

[@victoriakidd-cromis1124]

This is the first time I've listtened to your program. Well done! I am distantly related to Champ Ferguson, who turned outlaw at the end of the war. If I remember correctly his father was a brother to my great great grandfather on my mother's side of the family. I am interested in the stories of the civil war. My mother's family, on both sides, were from Clinton county, KY. My dad's family were from Virginia, but to my knowledge did not serve on either side.

[@jmcd3970]

Is this something that the couple hundred years later people know everything what everybody said what everybody thought but nothing was ever wrote down we don’t have any machines at the recorded your voice back then everybody’s got their own idea and most of them are full of shit Jerry Mcdonogh

[@tedmccauley9319]

Kind of like the Bible.

[@AU88]

Very cool story. Thank you.

[@MBSLC]

"With Fire and Sword" and "Switzerland and the Swiss" were authored by S.H.M. Byers. Thanks for the great information. These books are available on Amazon.

[@PObermanns]

Amazing story!

[@davidaltschuler9687]

"Here ARE the words..."

[@stevekohl5351]

amadeususawater Yes we are! I am surprised that an Iowa Union soldier was a POW in South Carolina. I thought Iowa soldiers mainly served in the west.

[@stanleyshannon4408]

Sherman was leading a western army.

[@kenvandevoort7820]

My piano teacher's father-in-law from Iowa was a POW at Andersonville.

[@FullRaidersAlchemist]

​@@stanleyshannon4408point kan on native genocide

[@stanleyshannon4408]

@@FullRaidersAlchemist weird how they always leave that part out about Lincoln's 'liberators'.

[@vinnolano]

I remember in Charleston when some somebody at a bar heard my northern accent he had to take a dig at me that his" great great great grandaddy kilt himself a yankee." I responded " cool, my parents emigrated from Europe. Thats got nothing to do with me." Great Story about Sherman acknowledging this man

[@damkayaker]

Well that hick rebel was lying because he added too many generations to his grand daddy. My great grandfather was born in 1844 and fought in the Civil War.

[@scottw5315]

I'm from Charleston. I'm sixty one and aside from schoolboy trash talk from half a century ago, no one today thinks much of that war and most of us know it was a costly mistake. The south did two things wrong in my opinion. They built an economy based on slavery. Then, rather than giving up an evil system when it was clear the world had moved on from such barbarity, they chose to fight to maintain it. Sadly, a tiny minority of wealthy landowners convinced mostly poor dirt farmers who didn't own slaves to do their fighting for them. They used the argument that it was their state right's that were at stake. That argument is still alive and well today. However, the key state right for them was to maintain the slavery institution. A testament to man's folly.

[@-sensibleChris]

​@@scottw5315That's it in a nut shell. I grew uo in the south also and that is the truth. Some of us see it, others are still being duped by wealthy landowners into doing their bidding. Dinald Trump is the equivalent of those wealthy southern landowners that would do anything to keep their slave labor. Repu license cling to their anti labor core beliefs that are leftover from the Civil War when Today's Republicans were then Southern Democrats.

[@mandoguy726]

​@@-sensibleChris You should remember the government tyranny that was pushed on the Southern states. The tyrants in Washington DC want you to forget. That's how they operate. And you really have a glaring misunderstanding of what a States Rights president is.

[@akaJackLugar]

South Carolina was the biggest pain in the a** during the war

[@paulapridy6804]

Good one. Uplifting 😊

[@waltergibson9178]

When was Buyers captured? During or after the march?

[@TerryByers-xk2qe]

Byers was captured at Chattanooga,according to his book fire and sword.

[@scallgin]

History is always written through the eyes of the victors. Sherman, remembered in the South as a villainous conqueror, was doing the business of the Union’s leadership. Sadly, it has always been so, those who set in motion the destruction of property and loss of life are too “civilized” to contemplate the harsh realities of conquest/pacification.

[@alancoe1002]

The Southerners have written a great many histories of the War, some of them true.

[@alanlight7740]

Well, after promising the mayor that Union troops intended no harm to the citizens of the town, they _did_ burn it all down. But not until it was of no further use to them. But this was in line with Sherman's stated desire to exterminate the southern people, just as he wished to exterminate Indians - and of course that was essentially the business of the Union's leadership.

[@jcsmith9412]

Like Abe Lincoln and his ilk?

[@dianenecaise1776]

​@@alanlight7740 Being a Southerner, I was not a fan of Sherman, I just recently learned of his exploits concerning the American Indians. He truly was not an honorable man.

[@oswaldoramosferrusola5235]

Make no mistake, had Sherman had nukes available, he would have used against Dixie. He was a pioneer and an advocate of total war.

[@KevinSmith-yh6tl]

I know what the note said. allegedly said that is. At least that's what a dude at a garage sale told me. " General, I'm from the FUTURE and believe me, your fighting on the wrong side. Yours Truly, Winslow Frankinhymer the 3rd"

[@genevawhite3178]

Thanks for this program.

[@tim71pos]

Would have been nice if he had found four or five people to actually sing the song?

[@lifeonthecivilwarresearchtrail]

I am hopeful that someone will be inspired to find a group of singers to make it happen.

[@rudydedogg6505]

As a South Carolinian, I take umbrage with this story. So typical of "the victor writing the history". Sherman actually wrote that he told the mayor that no harm would come to the people of Columbia or the town? If so, he was a damned liar! History shows that Sherman exacted a particularly brutal treatment upon the town, burning most of it to the ground and leaving its citizens devoid of food and shelter. He did so deliberately to punish the capitol of South Carolina for being the first state to secede from the Union. And that nice little song? What a delightful description of the hell Sherman's troops brought to those they encountered along their storied march to the sea. Sherman said he would "make Georgia howl", remember? Well, the Georgians did and they were primarily women and children as their men were either dead, POWs or trying to return home. Crops were destroyed, homes were burned and though Sherman ordered that his men not engage in rape, thievery or other crimes, they did anyway and with very little reprimand. That you could tell this story with a smile and without a hint of an inclusion of the facts behind it leaves me speechless.

[@stevebickley2498]

As an 8th generation south Carolinian. I 100% agree with you.

[@redneckgaijin]

Shall we talk about what your ancestors were doing to black people in South Carolina for the prior 90 years and then discuss the injustice of Sherman's march again?

[@scottwhitcher265]

Sure, right after we duscuss the injustices committed by the black people that sold those black people to the northerners who controlled all the shipping, then how those northerners committed injustices to those same black people until they found that it was cheaper to commit injustices to Irish, Scottish and asian immigrants, so sold their remaining black people to southerners. Then we can discuss the injustices they committed against southerners by taxing southern exports and using the proceeds to fund northern infrastructure. We could go on for some time... War crimes are just that.

[@redneckgaijin]

@@scottwhitcher265 And defense of slavery is also just that, no matter your whataboutism.

[@charleshinesjr.2360]

Shall we talk about what your ancestors were doing to black peoplle when the North dominated the "triangle trade" for 200+ years bringing hundreds of thousands of African slaves, not only to the States but to Brazil, Jamaica, and the British Antilles. It was the astute Yankee merchantmen who early on learned of the enormous profits to be made in the trade of Africans. In 1636, the "Desire", the first ship designed and built for the transport of African slaves was launced from the slipways of Marblehead, Mass.

[@Outlaw_Traffic_Stops]

sherman burns still in the hot place, for his war crimes against humanity.

[@davidisner718]

I always wondered why the impressive Confederate army barracks which today form the gorgeous USC "horseshoe" weren't burned to the ground by Sherman's army during the war. This video helps explain it... thank you!

[@turtlegrams6582]

📯🕒⏳⌛; on youtube Revolution Tyrants and Wars & Homestretch via Walter Veith and identity of the little horn power via Amazing Discoveries and who is the man of sin via EvenAtTheDoors and God's Words via Truth is Christ

[@emmetjames3]

The lost cause revisionists of the late 19th century grievously slandered Sherman, whose great affection for the South was well known during the war. Sherman was trusted so deeply by southern officials that he was asked and granted his personal protection over all their friends and family in North Carolina.

[@tyjameson7404]

Epic lyrics ❤️😘🐐🎠🌙

[@johngalt-dz2cg]

Doesn't make Sherman any less of a scalawag. Damn him and his name.

[@tekoa.9450]

😂

[@dmaxwell167]

My Great-Grandfather marched with Indiana 97th under Sherman from TN to Atlanta to Columbia up to Washington DC. He marched in the Grand Parade turn came home to farm near Linton IN.

[@FuzzyWuzzy75]

I thought for certain Ron would SING the song Luciano Pavarotti or Placido Domingo style ha ha!😂

[@lifeonthecivilwarresearchtrail]

You don't want me to sing. :)

[@FuzzyWuzzy75]

@@lifeonthecivilwarresearchtrail I had a gut feeling you'd say that... I will chalk it up to modesty!

[@davidjennings4589]

If sherman had thought it was of military necessity to destroy columbia he would have, as it was he fired the cotyon and burned a lot of towns inadvertentley, by the time he hit south carolina the rebel army had run from him into alabama then Tennessee, thecwar was over at Cheraw at the katest and they knew it. Why is it that of the hundreds of pictures of sherman that must have been made you only ever have twi come back in a search this one and the one of him on his horse at the salient N.E. corner of the Atlanta defense works opposite his placement of the dalgren gun at north decatur and briarcliffe?

[@stevenlight5006]

During this interesting story,I not the word traitor,the war was awful and pride was /is domanit,but the states had / hav there rites , in the constitution.

[@raymondbuniak6887]

Please add a performance of the song.

[@ukulelemikeleii]

I found a version and posted it!

[@ukulelemikeleii]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5XZp4ikia-basksi=yD5T1u0zRjoMTHlQ

[@JoeL-re1dc]

So, flattery will get you somewhere.......

[@2ezee2011]

loved that !

[@Raymond-dn3su]

Hearing this is would be comparable to hearing O. J. Simpson say that Nichole B. Simpson and Ron Goldman stabbed each other.

[@spacehonky6315]

How strange that a local Columbia women's group would hire a POW gleeclub to sing about the Confederate defeat.

[@brandonlollis1506]

Yankee propaganda shees

[@jjj1951]

@brandonlollis1506 poor neoconfederate

[@brianniegemann4788]

I imagine they sang popular songs of the day, the sort of music sung in taverns. Also religious music. If I'd been one of them, the last thing I'd want to sing would be a tune glorifying Sherman. They wrote and sang it when no one was around, to keep up morale.

[@antoniodelrio1292]

I can certainly see the Columbians treating the POWs civily. You only have to look at POW camps in the US for Germans during WWII. If the ladies did have the glee club over for a visit I doubt seriously it was with the knowledge they would sing a song like that. Either was an embellishment by the POWs or or a surprise attack by the prisoners on the fine ladies of Columbia.

[@DeanKaehele-xq1iz]

I would dearly love to hear that played by guitar & harmonica

[@Lew114]

Sherman wasn’t a good person, but that doesn’t mean that the Union cause was unjust. Slavery is the greatest evil ever perpetrated by Americans. War is horrible, but letting slavery continue would have been 1000 times more horrible. I say this as a southerner.

[@richardpeoples8019]

The war actually had very little to do slavery and there were actually more slaves in the north than the south-CHECK REAL FACTS AND NOT BS.

[@stevensilverberg605]

Really he wasn't bad. It was war, that's what happens in war.

[@danieljstark1625]

Fascinating!

[@rickvia8435]

Very impressive...

[@temijinkahn511]

Excellent! Earned a sub!

[@custardflan]

My great grandfather's brothers unit was the 3rd Wwisconsin and was therw.