Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 9.
Frank Moore, Ed.

On the twenty-second day of November, 1864, while the Twentieth army corps was approaching the city, I was directed by the Major-General commanding left wing of the army, to occupy the city as commandant of the post, with my own regiment and the One Hundred and Seventh New-York volunteers. My instructions were, to guard all public property, to maintain good order, and to perform all the duties of post commander. I immediately proceeded to establish patrols in the streets, and detailed suitable guards for the public buildings, including the State House, two arsenals, one depot, one magazine for powder and ammunition, and other buildings containing cotton, salt, and other contraband property. I also appointed a competent officer to take as correct an inventory of the property, contained in these and other buildings, as possible. The limited time in which I had command of the city, precluded the possibility of my getting a perfectly full and correct inventory of all the property found and destroyed, as this, in my opinion, would have required at least a week to obtain. The following is a list of the most important and valuable articles found, with the disposition made of the same:

One powder magazine, blown up; railroad depot and surrounding buildings, burned; two thousand three hundred muskets, smooth bore, calibre sixty-nine, burned; three hundred sets accoutrements, burned; ten thousand rounds ammuniion, calibre sixty-nine, burned; five thousand lances, burned; one thousand five hundred cutlasses, burned; fifteen boxes United States standard weights and measures, burned; sixteen hogsheads salt, thrown into the river; one hundred and seventy boxes fixed ammunition, and two hundred kegs powder. Turned over all that was valuable to Major Reynolds, and threw the balance into the river. About one thousand five hundred pounds tobacco were distributed among the troops. A large quantity of cotton-say one thousand eight hundred bales--was disposed of by General Sherman; manner not made known to me. One large three-story building in the square, near the State House, was burned, together with a large number of miscellaneous articles, as parts of harness and saddles, a repairshop, with all the necessary tools for repairing all kinds of war materials, etc.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,