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Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3., Chapter 17: Sherman's March through the Carolinas.--the capture of Fort Fisher. (search)
a silly Roman stoicism, but from folly and want of sense, in filling it with lint, cotton, and tinder. Our officers and men on duty worked well to extinguish the flames; but others not on duty, including the officers, who had long been imprisoned there, rescued by us, may have assisted in spreading the fire after it had once begun, and may have indulged in unconcealed joy to see the ruin of the capital of South Carolina. Major Nichols, in his Story of the Great March, under date of Feb. 17, 1865 (page 166), says: Various causes are assigned to explain the origin of the fire. I am quite sure that it originated in sparks, flying from the hundreds of bales of cotton which the Rebels had placed along the middle of the main street, and fired as they left the city. Fire from a tightly compressed bale of cotton is unlike that of a more open material, which burns itself out. The fire lies smoldering in a bale of cotton after it appears to be extinguished, and in this instance, when ou