"The soldiers (Nathan Bedford Forrest's) are dealing very badly, taking corn, leaving down fences, stealing horses, chickens, hogs and everything else they can see..."
Let's look at some other excerpts from Myra Inman's diary [Link]:
Pg. 230. ... The Yankees are taking our corn, potatoes, pork, salt, and never pay a cent and besides talk very insulting to us.
Pg. 232. ... He, Georgie and Pryor have come home, the Yanks have laid his farm waste. Wilders Yankee Cavalry camped on our lot from sun down until 12 o’clock, took corn, potatoes and straw and burnt a great number of our rails. [Fence rails, I suspect.]
Pg. 300. ... Two regiments of Yanks came to repulse the Rebels. They stole some of Mrs. Watkins’ corn, four pigs, three or four chickens, two hams of meat, and burnt a great many rails.
See? That’s my point. No difference between the Yankees and Confederates-both would steal the citizens blind. Except the Yankees were more likely to let their enemies keep their eyeballs.
Pilgrim’s Progress with Cump
First Presbyterian Church Union soldiers made the pulpit area into a bandstand and danced in the interior. The Confederates had used the church as a hospital earlier. Cheraw, SC
Hopewell AR Presbyterian Church and Burrel Hemphill Monument Burrel Hemphill was a slave of Robert Hemphill, who owned twenty two hundred acres near the church. When the Federal troops arrived, the Hemphill family fled, leaving Burrel in charge of the plantation. It is reported that he buried the family silver in the woods, but was caught by Union soldiers upon his return. According to his grandson, who witnessed the incident, Hemphill refused to tell the Union soldiers where to find the loot. The angry Federal soldiers then dragged Burrel to a spot near the church where they hanged him and shot up his body for target practice.
A granite marker honors Burrel Hemphill:
"In Memory of Burrel Hemphill Killed by Union Soldiers February, 1865. Although a Slave He Gave His Life Rather Than Betray a Trust. He was a member of Hopewell". Blackstock, SC
Old Brick Church The confederate soldiers, when retiring before Sherman in his march through the area, destroyed the bridge over Little River. Sherman's men tore up the flooring and sleepers of the church for material to rebuild the bridge. Although the church is not generally open to the public, a door facing inside the church still holds a handwritten apology for the defacement. It is simply signed "A Yankee". Winnsboro, SC
Old Presbyterian Church Originally erected in 1862, this church replaced a wood structure built in 1835. The building is in early Gothic style architecture and has 16-inch thick walls of plaster that are marked to resemble stone. During the War, Sherman’s soldiers stabled their horses inside the church. Many of Lancaster's early community leaders are buried in the graveyard adjoining the church which also contains the graves of veterans of five wars. Lancaster, SC
Old St. David's Church 1770 Used as a hospital by both armies, St. David's also survived use by both armies during the American Revolution. There are marked Confederate graves in the cemetery and unmarked Union and Confederate ones. Sherman's troops marched by this site to cross the pontoon bridges at the end of Church Street. Cheraw, SC
St. John's Episcopal Church Searching for St. John's silver communion service, the Yankee troops were said to have unearthed a freshly covered grave site believing it to be a possible hiding spot for the silver. Having only found a coffin, it is claimed that they removed the body of Major Manigault and with curses placed the body up, with the face toward the church, which in the meantime had been set on fire. Winnsboro, SC
St. Peter's Catholic Church Saber marks on the outside columns and a burn mark on the floor inside bear testimony to Sherman's occupation of Cheraw. Cheraw, SC
Ursuline Convent, Columbia, SC A group of sixty female student sought refuge in the chapel of the Ursuline Convent . In the dark of the night they could see the flames from burning building as they prayed and said the rosary. With a crashing bang at the door, a mob of drunken soldiers swarmed the alter, stripping it of sacred gold vessels. A priest rescued the nuns and girls and took them to a nearby church. A few hours later they witnessed the burning convent collapse into a mess of fiery debris. Laughing soldiers taunted the nuns. Rudely blowing cigar smoke in their faces, on scoundrel jeered;
"Oh, holy! Yes, holy! We're just as you are! Now, what do you think of God? Ain't Sherman greater?
Many Union men did what they could to protect the women, children, elderly men, and their property, often at the risk of their own lives. I would imagine their voices lifted to heaven to join with Ellen Sherman's to seek forgiveness for such evil deeds.
Ellen Sherman's last years on earth were not the peaceful ones expected of a famous conqueror's wife.
She refused to attend the theater with Sherman, one of his great delights. He explained to his daughter Elly,
“Your Mama won't go because she is afraid the theater will take fire and burn up, of course there is little or no danger, but when one gets that idea it takes away all the pleasure and satisfaction factor”
Maybe she lived in fear the theaters she attended would go up in flames like the churches, theatres, great halls of learning, and homes her Cump instigated, then permitted to "take fire and burn up".
sources "Citizen Sherman" by Micheal Fellman
South Carolina Historial Society