After two weeks of thoroughly confusing the enemy, William Tecumseh Sherman crossed the Congaree River in South Carolina on Tuesday, February 14, 1865 and promptly turned the bulk of his army toward its true target of Columbia, the state capital, “without wasting time or labor on Branchville or Charlestown,” as Sherman later reported in his dispatches. On the same day President Jefferson Davis continued to advise General William Hardee at Charlestown to resist evacuating the city as long as possible but left it up to Hardee and his superior in the field, General Beauregard, ultimately to decide the appropriate military strategy. Hardee immediately began to evacuate what war related materials he could from
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.