Goodwyn, Thomas Jefferson, 1800-1877. Thomas Jefferson Goodwyn papers, 1865 Feb. 17 - 1930 Sept. 7.
Title:
Thomas Jefferson Goodwyn papers, 1865 Feb. 17 - 1930 Sept. 7.
Two letters, 1865 and 1866, relating to the burning of the Columbia, S.C., on 17 Feb. 1865, consisting of letter of surrender issued by Mayor, T.J. Goodwyn to Gen. W.T. Sherman shortly prior to the burning of the city during Sherman's march; letter, 1866, in which Goodwyn provides a detailed description of his interactions with Gen. Sherman prior to, and after the burning of the city; and newspaper clipping, 1930, publishing an account in which Goodwyn's daughter recalls racial tensions in Calhoun County, S.C., during Reconstruction. Letter of surrender, 17 Feb. 1865, "Mayor's Office" (Columbia, S.C.) to Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, requesting on behalf of the citizens of Columbia, "the treatment accorded by the usages of civilized warfare," together with "a sufficient guard in advance of the Army to maintain order in the City and protect the persons and property of the Citizens." [This letter published in A Columbia Reader, 1786-1986, p. 60.] It is unclear if this letter represents the actual instrument of surrender delivered from Goodwyn to Gen. Sherman by Col. George A. Stone of the 25th Iowa Infantry Regiment. Emendations on the manuscript page indicate that this may be a draft copy from which a fair copy was later drawn up. However, in the haste and confusion of the moment, and considering the scarcity of writing paper at the time, Goodwyn may have written on whatever was available without taking time to recopy the draft. Text of this letter was made available in some way to the Columbia Phoenix newspaper, where the full text appeared in the 21 Mar. 1865 issue as part of William Gilmore Simms' series on the "Sack and Destruction of the City of Columbia." Creases in this letter indicate that it was folded four times, which would have made it an appropriate size to cache away inconspicuously in a wallet as one of many souvenirs that were carried away. It appears to have later been pasted into a scrapbook and subsequently mounted on cardboard for framing and labeled, "rejected by General Sherman's aide and picked up by Alderman John McKenzie." Letter, 8 June 1866, Fort Motte (Calhoun County, S.C.), to Rev. Colin Campbell Murchison, re the burning of Columbia, S.C., describing in detail his meeting with the Federal Troops, efforts to remove personal property from the flames, taking refuge with his wife, Eliza Elliot Darby Goodwyn, and family on the campus of South Carolina College, his several conversations with Gen. Sherman, emphatic denial of any connection between decisions made by Gen. Wade Hampton and the city's destruction, and brief mention of Rev. Murchison's former church, Washington Street Methodist. Newspaper article, "The Army of The Lord" by Clara Childs, published (7 Sept. 1930) in The Sunday Record (Columbia, S.C.), subtitled, "Story of the Yankee soldiers who went from Columbia to the scene of threatened race riots at Fort Motte... but the troops quelled the race disturbance instead of aiding it, as the ex-slaves had anticipated.... The material was obtained from Mrs. Ann Goodwyn Legare , a [member of the organizationn, the] Girl[s] of the Sixties, who resides in Columbia." In this essay, Goodwyn's daughter, Ann Goodwyn Legare, recalls the social unrest in the Fort Motte community (Calhoun County, S.C.), at an unidentified date [ca. late 1860s during Reconstruction] following the wounding and subsequent death of Jeff Reese, an African American freedman, who was shot by a white man named "Deddrick Hane" [presumed to be Deiderick Jacob Hane (1802-1869) of Hickory Grove plantation]. Legare was the wife of Thomas K. Legare; some sources list her name as Margaret Ann Goodwyn Legare.
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