“The pitiful sight of Charleston saddened even Sherman.
The feared Union general’s long-dreaded visit came on May 3, 1865, nearly three months after the city was abandoned by Confederate troops, and just weeks following the war’s end.”
That’s how the Post & Courier’s Brian Hicks begins his latest column, “During Reconstruction, strife hampers Charleston’s progress”.
“William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who’d watched Atlanta and Columbia burn, sailed into port only for a short visit on his way North. And he barely recognized the city where he’d spent the 1840s as a young lieutenant at Fort Moultrie.
“Any one who is not satisfied with war should go and see Charleston,” Sherman later said, “and he will pray louder and deeper than ever that the country may in the long future be spared any more war.”
Read the entire column by CLICKING HERE. If you’re not a Post & Courier subscriber you may hit a paywall.
To see links to all 29 Hicks columns celebrating Charleston history, CLICK HERE