Who Burnt Columbia

(CIVIL WAR). Who Burnt Columbia? Part 1st. Official Depositions of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. and Gen O. O. Howard, U. S. A., for the Defence; and Extracts from Some of the Depositions for the Claimants. Charleston, SC: Walker, Evans & Cogswell, 1873. Orig. printed green wrappers. Spine beginning to split, upper outer corner of front wrapper chipped, else very good. Howes C-627. Sabin 80420. Dornbusch III, 2486. Scarce collection of depositions connected to the controversial burning of the city of Columbia in February 1865. Sherman's army entered the city and accepted their surrender without a fight on February 17, 1865. A fire started that same day and was incredibly destructive. Controversy over the causes started almost immediately, with the Union side claiming the fire was set by retreating Confederate troops, and Confederates claiming that Sherman had ordered the torching of an already pacified city. Despite being published by the prosecution against the United States, the pamphlet clearly favors Sherman and the Union. A second part, promised on the front wrapper, to "contain the Rebuttal Testimony yet to be taken" was apparently never published. The preceding iteration of the printers, then called Evans & Cogswell, were considered the "first printers of the Confederacy," having been official printers to the South Carolina secession convention in December 1860.…