February 17, 1865: Columbia, South Carolina burns after retreating rebels set fire to cotton stores. “I didn’t burn your town; you very injudiciously dealt out whiskey to my soldiers, and the result is a damned big fire.”- General William T Sherman in response to the complaints of Columbia residents
Drawings of Confederate flags captured by the Union Army at Antietam on September 17th, 1862. These drawings are from the diary of the Union Army map maker Robert Knox Sneden, who in 1863 became a prisoner of war. He survived, though he endured the conditions of Andersonville before he was exchanged
