| From the Richmond Whig |
| |
| March 7, 1865 |
| |
| From Columbia, S. C. |
| The Evacuation of the City ***** Lively Scenes on the Railroad, Etc. |
| Correspondence of the Whig |
| Charlotte, Feb. 22, 1865 |
| ***** Our troops fell back until the sounds of cannon
reverberated through the city. Then public officers for the first time
began to think of removing the Government stores. The instructions from
Richmond had left many of them no other discretion. Hurry, excitement
and some confusion became the order of the day. Everybody, public and
private, wanted a car. The President of the Charlotte & South Carolina
Railroad, Colonel William Johnston, his assistants, Captain Sharp, the
agent of transportation, and his aids, now bent their energies to the
Herculean task before them, and accomplished all that men could do. The
trains from the South Carolina {RR} and
Greenville {& Columbia RR} road were run
upon the Charlotte track, filled and hurried away to return and fill
again. Engines shrieked their signal notes, morning, noon and night. The
activity was ceaseless. The depots were crowded with goods of every
description. Passenger trains were thronged, ladies and families in
their fright undergoing the most grievous torments of travel to escape
from what they believed was a doomed city. The city resounded with the
rumble of a thousand wheels, all bearing their freight to the grand
funnel out of which it was to be discharged. Horses, wagons, negroes --
everything that could aid in the removal of property was brought into
requisition, and between force and persuasion, an immense amount of
labor was systematically, rapidly and judiciously employed. |
| ***** |
| The scenes up the railroad may be briefly described.
Crowds at every depot seeking temporary shelter; some getting off, more
getting on; twenty trains thundering along one after the other in quick
succession; screaming locomotives, crying babies, tearful women,
families traveling in box cars among piles of bacon, salt, bandboxes,
trunks and bedclothes; a break down near Winnsboro; engine off the
track; ten hours delay; enemy reported coming; more consternation; a
long night; no wood, no water, no breakfast; ten carloads of ladies of
the Treasury Department in most unattractive morning dishabille,
with hair unkempt and hollow, sleepy eyes slipping about in the red
mucillaginous mud; ten or twelve carloads of Yankee prisoners just
ahead, likewise at a dead halt; the guards around their cap fires, and
the individuals of a Herculean aspect singing with tremendous energy
Union songs; still ahead the section masters and track-layers, with a
gang of laborers repairing the road and holding post-mortem
consultations over the remains of a deserted engine -- finally, a run
back three miles, a filling of tanks, a fresh start, and arrival at
Charlotte. There an avalanche upon the good people, an appeal to
hospitality which is most warmly heeded, and a gradual simmering down of
all the elements in agitation. Such, in brief, is the history of our
evacuation of Columbia. |
| F. G. de F. |
|