University of South Carolina Libraries
Wednesday Momfaft April 13,1868. * Woodland?. Sundry mistakes and ttj?-?tate"?eBt-f .having been mada in respect to the destruction of "Woodlanda," the plantation and.country seat jof W. Gilmore Simms, a-fcrief account of the real "facts may be proper- The particulars ire gather from a letter written to the author, by Mrs..H. Pinckney, a lady who; with her family? a friend and two children, occupied the dwell? ing during his absence; and partly from circum? stantial detaila . furnished subsequently from other and trustworthy sources. When the enemy beached thc neighborhood, Mrs. P. ad? dressed a letter te^?en. Blair, requesting* pro ( te ct ion for the dwelling and^brary, and. sug? gesting the enormity jot the crime which contd destroy .booka, especially such a collection-! some ten thousand volumes-made with great, care, during a period of forty? years, and con? stituting, perhaps, th? moat valuable library, to. a literary man, to be found in the Confederacy Before an answer could be received to thia ap? plication, bude bf stragglers had pen etta ted the' bouse and begun the work of robbery. The trunks and bareena were at once broken open. In the midst of 4hia scene, the guard sent by Gen. Blair made ita appearance, and relieved the house of the plunderers. The General himself, with Gen. -Howaid and other officers, ?visited the estate, and spent aomo time in the - examination of the library. They took away a collection of maps', including Mills' Atlas of South .Carolina/ and perhaps a few other vo? l?mes. They also carried, off a couple* of double barrelled guns and a rifle; but nothing besides of any. importance, and their deport? ment waa courteous and becoming. They left a sufficient guard behind them, and the build ir g was env*ed while this guard remained o#the premises. But, with their departure, frequent attempts to bum the house at night were made, and thc ladies, became so mach alarmed and wiaried with night watching, that thgy fled, ard nought refuge for themselves and family ?t ^ the neighborer hamlet of Midway. With their dep?rtui .ne-felons succeeded in their design. The house, a very extensive, newly b i'iit one, and ohly partially finished, but with six habitable rooms, besides the library, was bred at four ?"several quarters, and wlien the. flanjts were discovered by the servants, at day? break, they had reached a*degree of height anV intensity which made ail efforts impossible to nave. The^Jibraryj-fn a separate wing, con? nected, witt the 'main dwelling by a corridor, was the first to burn. Not a volume was saved. From the other wing, and the ^enUe-building, the servants rescued some of the bedding and furniture. *Bome idle stories have imputed the destruction of the property to the slaves ol Mr, Simms, and one of these, hia^-body servant, who was the chief laborer and the most inde fctignUlfidn his efforts io say? the property who dtdT'in feet, save the meet of thoee thing* which were rescued from the fire-waa arrest/ ed, ? tr -on.e vague conjectures, and actually tried fer his life befoio a court of freeholders He waa enaatmobfily-acquited Tb* ??avps * < a tjjjul ? j. "mil- III iV ! 1,1" II i themselves, all testify that.the incendiarism waa due to email squad? of white stragglers, follow isg in th* wp?vc 01' tbe main army*-miserable bauds of plunderers, who usually lurk behind with this very object-creatures not brave enough for fight, bur, eager enough to steal. Successive banda of these came fra. hourly, for severa"! days ofter the army had passed-the jackals following' in the wak? of .the lion: These ra?e?rawle m i so ry an ts have thus, for a few hundred dollars' worth of portable phTnder, destroyed the accumulations of .forty years, and such a collection of literature as has rarely been made in our ofeMntry, and such as is not likely r.o be made again. The larger.and better portions of the furniture had been previously sent off to other places. The library shelves were left full, and sixteen Targe boxea of choice bo?>ks besides bari been packed away by^the . kutWOrt, and weuld have been eent away, could transportation have.bccn obtained. This was found to be impossible. In addition lo the dwelling, the incendiaries destroyed the kitchen, the carriage house, gin house, threshing house, stables.barns and varions other building?; car? ried off four or five holies, and three oxen, with wagons and buggy. They also carried off some twenty-eight or thiity negroes, fliese rtarticu. lars moy be all relied oh. Mr. Simms has no reason to doubt that the work of incendiarism was ^lolly done by straggling squads of the enemy. He bas no reason lo suppose that the negroes were criminal and the investigation has so decided. Thej had no-motive for the" crime. They knew-what the Yankees did not-j-tbat, save the library and a very few bulky articles of furniture, there was no plunder to provoke their own or the" cupidity of any other parties. Had the house oeep "thrown open wide to the plunderers, it might have been the wiser measure; and vet. in the case of such profligates es we h?r*e had to deal .with, the mere wantonness of mood which moves men in the exercise of an unwonted pri? vilege of license, and stimulates to mere excess even in the absence of all considerations of sport and profit, would have sufficed for mis chief-^-cven as the wild colt, ia a sudden spasm of exulting animal lifo, leaps and bounds and rollicks, trampling down the fields upon whose lush grasses be does not care.to browse. ."We had just penned the preceding, when we received, through tho Augusta Ccnstiiuiionullsi, a long narrative, contained in the New York . Herald, giving a narrative bf the progress of tue.Yankees from the Savannah to the Conga" ree. From this, we extract the following ac. count of*'Gen. Sherman's visit to Woodland*-:" At Woodlands, about one mile South of Mid way, is the residence of the great novelist, Mr. Simms. It is an old-fashioned brick building, wkh massive, ungainly porticoes. It' is a strange castellated appearing affair, with some \ thing of a weird look aboutit. Our skirmishers : and foragers paid a hasty visit to Mr. Simms, , and as he was not at home, they thought they would do the honors of. the house themselvos, and fell to helping themselves hb+rsily. Or. bearing this, Maj. Gen. Frank Blair placed a I guard over the place to protect the hoiise, hw . iture and fine library. Mr. Simms isa tho rough, m Md secessionist, full of Southe! u pio judice, i od a fierce calumniator of Northern ' * hh>acter ana institutions. Mr. Sbo?i*'.plantation is* good type of th?, un bg?mmgS?????M i j -? . low-land plantations of South Carolina. Siroco we left Savannah.-th? *><>T-?i*y -wss ?.h<- vast low land plain. Jn-front of M"r. Simms' house are some venerable trees* beneath vi hieb the Tine and cypress have Jormed fantastic bowel.?, with their delicate foliage and garlands of hanging moss. Not far from, tho resid? m c is n dark, solemn swamp, formed by the expansion of .the EdSsto -?"Ter tmVlow land*. This i* full of fallen trees, Gothic arches of cypress and vines interlacing their branches in strange shapes, while the ever-pending mose waves its funeral-looking, pall over the miasmic, poison? ous air of swamp lands. -Here revel in secure . enjoyment wild fowl, serpents and alligators. Such dismal swamps are frequent in Caro? lina, but chiefly abound along the sea const from Savannah te Charleston. ' -. -_ A loyal demonstration has been gotten up in Charleston on the 21st ult. ..The committee selected for this purpose, consisted of the fol? lowing named parties, who may be very re -m ark a ble and leading people in the gcod old city, but we confess never to have beard of them before, viz: .lohn Bonan,'A. Porter Far ro w*, Joseph Quash, John Steedman, Ssw. Dick? eon, Archibald Wriggs and "Peter Well.?. By their resolutions, they thank the United States authorises for saving them from conflagration and -ill-treatment;, express their gratitude to. General Hatch, Admiral Dahlgren and otters, for yielding them more saving and some crea? ture comforts; and the fourth 1001 ve-but we .give that entire: . .-! "4th. That to his Excellency Abraham Lin? coln, .the President Of the United St nt es, we return our sincere thanks and never-dying*" gratitude, for the noble and patriotic manner in which he promulgated- the doctrines of Re? publicanism, and "foi the consisteLcy in noa only promulgating, but invariably conforming his action thereto, and we shall ever be pleased to acknowledge and hail him aa the champion of the rights of freemen." This, in sooth, is very rare fooling Are liri these people, Bonan,'Farrow, Quash, &c.? ne groet? We ?"suppos? so. It Beems to be very .like nigger talk, in Yankee English. The Charleston Hotel has been opened under the* management of Stetson, of New York, for? merly peeper'of the Astor House. We are told that, at the opening feast, "a number of prewitt tn? citizens of Sooth Carolina" were arning the loyal and exulting partakers! Who are they? The Yankees , have constructed splendid wharves at Pori Beyal,' but the amount of buaiueae is entirely confined to sutlers and themselves. I"*. -!_?-.?LJi ^. -_1_Lilia . -OBITT^ABT. Departed this life, in this ciiv, February 20. 1865, of typhoid fevsf. WASHINGTON M. pAXBERGOTTI; after an illness of m-atly ?mr weeks, in the thirty-seventh year of hw ?e*; leaving a large circle of relatives and friecds'lo mourn his untimely cjitl. ~~ ~C?LCMB??, AVRIL ll, 186*. At a meeting of the Joint Belief Commit? tees,, held this doy, the following resolution wa? pwBs?dr - \ Jtetolye*, That as a change will be_m*de tn the plan of issuing rations, that four days' ia t.ions be issued on to-nioj^ov, after which the djstributing stores will be closed until*Wednes? day, 19th; and that notice of the same be made j public through the FJujtnix,