 | A City Laid Waste: The Capture, Sack, and Destruction of the City of Columbia Subjects: Columbia (S.C.) -- History -- Burning 1865; Columbia (S.C.) -- History -- Burning 1865 -- Personal narratives; Sherman William T. (William Tecumseh) 1820–1891; A dramatic eyewitness account of a city under siege during the Civil War In the first reissue of these documents since 1865, A City Laid Waste captures in riveting detail the destruction of South Carolina's capital city. William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), a native South Carolinian and one of the nation's foremost men of letters, was in Columbia and witnessed firsthand the city's capture and destruction. A renowned novelist and poet, who was also an experienced journalist and historian, Simms deftly recorded the events of February 1865 in a series of eyewitness accounts published in the first ten issues of the Columbia Phoenix and reprinted here. His record of burned buildings constitutes the most authoritative information available on the extent of the damage. Simms historian David Aiken provides a historical and literary context for Simms's reportage. In his introduction Aiken clarifies the significance of Simms's articles and draws attention to factors most important for understanding the occupation's impact on the city of Columbia. William Gilmore Simms was born in Charleston, South Carolina, April, 17 1806. His academic education was received in the school of his native city, where he was for a time a clerk in a drug and chemical house. Though his first aspirations were for medicine, he studied law at eighteen, but never practised. In 1827, he published in Charleston a volume of Lyrical and other Poems, his first attempt in literature. The following year, he became editor and partial owner of the Charleston City Gazette. In 1829 he published another volume of poems, The Vision of Cortes, and in 1830, The Tricolor. His paper proved a bad investment, and through its failure, in 1833, he was left penniless. Simms decided to devote himself to literature, and began a long series of volumes which did not end till within three years of his death.He published a poem entitled "Atalantis, a Tale of the Sea" (New York, 1832), the best and longest of all his poetic works. The Yemassee is considered his best novel, but Simms is mainly known as a writer of fiction, the scene of his novels is almost wholly southern. He was for many years a member of the legislature, and in 1846 was defeated for lieutenant-governor by only one vote. Simmd died in Charleston on June, 11 1870 (Bowker Author Biography) |
