A few Northern accounts of the activity of Federals in Columbia; I am not going into the briar patch of "Who Burned Columbia," but some of the attached first person accounts may be illustrative:

" [p. 290] ..... Wood’s divison had first occupied the town and Hazen’s was ordered in. Troops traversed all the streets, company front, reaching from wall to wall or fence to fence, and arrested every soldier not in a regular command under an officer. Many soldiers were drunk, some were violent, and a few criminal. Major Dayton, of General Sherman’s staff, and later of Cincinnati, shot one of our soldiers for attempting to assault a woman. Two were killed, thirty wounded, and 370 arrested during the cleaning-up. Very few crimes were committed against women."

Source: Michael C. Garber, “Reminiscences of the Burning of Columbia, South Carolina,” Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 11, Dec. 1915, pp. 285-300. This account was also published in Magazine of History, Vol. 12, 1916, pp. 177-191. Wood's division was not relieved from provost duty until ca 3 A.M. To my knowledge, none of the 370 Federals arrested were ever subjected to court martial. Garber was attempting to make an apology for the conduct of Sherman.

" [p. 148] February 18th. At 4 a.m. the Third Brigade was called out to suppress riot, did so, killing two men, wounding thirty, and arresting 370. ….."

Source: Daniel R. Lucas, New History of the 99th Indiana Infantry, Containing Official Reports, Anecdotes, Including Biographies and Complete Rolls. Rockford, Ill.: Horner Printing Co., 1900, 256 pp.

" [p. 378] ..... It is a terrible sight. Last night a host of drunken soldiers and Negroes overpowered the guards and fired the city in several places. Families were driven out without warning, barely escaping with their lives. Quite a number of drunken soldiers were burned to death. Citizens were insulted."

Source: Alonzo Leighton Brown, History of the Fourth Regiment of Minnesota Infantry Volunteers during the Great Rebellion, 1861 – 1865. St. Paul: Pioneer Press Co., 1892, 594 pp.

" [p. 331] ..... There had been some looting ... in the afternoon after the stores had been broken open [by the soldiers]. and grinning at the good chance, and exulting, like so many demons; officers and men reveling on the wines and liquors, until the burning houses burned them in their drunken orgies."

Source: David Power Conyngham, Sherman’s March through the South, with Sketches and Incidents of the Campaign. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1865, 431 pp. Conyngham was a civilian war correspondent who generally accompanied the left (Slocum’s) wing, but entered Columbia with Howard's wing.

" We got feather beds out of the houses and used them. We also took a piano into the yard and played upon it for a while, then broke it up to burn for cooking. Most of these houses were deserted by their owners, and of course, what was there belonged to us. It will never be known how many of our soldiers were burned with the buildings during the fire. I saw one body, all burned to cinders. I knew it was a soldier, for beside the trunk [torso] was the barrel of his gun. ....."

Source: William G. Baugh, Sr., “Columbia Still Burning,” National Tribune, 13 Oct 1910. (The National Tribune was the Grand Army of the Republic equivalent to Confederate Veteran.)

" [p. 185] A few soldiers were so drunk that they were burnt."

Source: Oscar Lawrence Jackson, The Colonel’s Diary: Journals Kept before and during the Civil War by the Late Colonel Oscar L. Jackson, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, Sometime Commander of the Sixty-third Regiment, O. V. I. Sharon, Pa.: Privately Published, 1922, 262 pp.

" [p. 352] ….. I now went to my camp, and had just closed my eyes, when I was awakened by an orderly from corps headquarters with an order from General Logan to patrol the city, and arrest all soldiers and disorderly persons. I detailed for patrol duty General John M. Oliver and his brigade. They marched to the north end of the city, and deploying, moved through the town like a drag-net. The [p. 353] haul was by no means a light one. About twenty-five hundred citizens and soldiers, including officers of nearly every grade, were turned over to the provost-marshal.

Source: William Babcock Hazen, A Narrative of Military Service. Boston: Ticknor & Co., 1885, 450 pp. Hazen commanded the Second Division in the XV Corps (Logan’s). He was born in Vermont, but was appointed to West Point from Ohio.

" [p. 38] Saturday 18.

Fair and smoky. Was on fatigue most of the day on the bridge. Most of the city was burned last night with about 30 of our men who were drunk. took the bridge up in the night. got it loaded."

Source: Reuben Sweet, “Civil War Diary of Reuben Sweet,” TS, 38 pp., Reuben Sweet Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society. Sweet's diary ends at this point. He was a member of the 14 WIS.