The Burning of Columbia. 233
be proud that it finds a place in your collection. I am also sending one direct to General Beauregard, with my best thanks for his kind- ness in letting me have the autograph letters you have so kindly sent me.
That of General Beauregard is one that I shall always prize. I am indeed very grateful to you for telling me to keep it.
Again thanking you most sincerely for your kindness to me in this matter, believe me to remain,
Very faithfully yours,
WOLSELEY.
The Burning of Columbia— Affidavit of Mrs. Agnes Law.
[The following affidavit was contained in the report of the com- mittee of citizens who investigated the burning of Columbia, but was by some means omitted from the copy from which we printed the report. It is of sufficient value to be now subjoined :]
" Of the suffering and distress of the individual inhabitants some conception may be collected from the individual experience of one of them, Mrs. Agnes Law, a lady more venerable for her virtues even than for her age, whose narrative, almost entire, we venture to intro- duce :
" ' I am seventy-two years old,' she deposes, 'and have lived in this town forty-eight years. My dwelling was a brick house, three stories, slate roof, with large gardens on two sides. When Columbia was burned my sister was with me, also a niece of mine, recently confined, who had not yet venturned out of the house. When General Sherman took possession I got four guards ; they were well-behaved and sober men. I gave them supper. One lay down on the sofa ; the others walked about. When the city began to burn I wished to remove my furniture ; they objected and said my house was in no danger. Not long afterwards these guards themselves took lighted candles from the mantelpiece and v/ent up stairs. At the same time other soldiers crowded into the house. My sister followed them up-stairs, but came down very soon to say, 'They are setting the curtains on fire.' Soon the whole house was in a blaze. When those who set fire up-stairs came down they said to me, ' Old woman, if you do not mean to burn up with your house you had better get out of it.' My niece had been carried up to the Taylor house, on Arsenal Hill. I went to the door to see if I could get any person I knew to assist me up
