"Columbia (S.C.)" . . "South Carolina" . . . . "United States" . . "Ursuline Convent (Columbia, S.C.)" . . . . "Magrath describes herself, in 1865, as \"a girl of seventeen\" and a student at the Ursuline Convent in Columbia, S.C.; her account of daily life at the convent includes anecdotes re her classmates, and the night of 17 Feb. 1865: \"I yet vividly recall the horrors of that night - and the first rude breaking in on our quiet secluded lives by my Father rushing in almost breathless with my weeping and terrified younger sister, Lily....\"; the morning after the fire, \"a detachment of [Union] soldiers passed on horseback and Mother Superior went forward and accosted a tall lean man... reproaching him for her terrible situation, and asking for some protection for the homeless nuns and young girls in her care. He seemed slightly disconcerted, and promised to do what he could for her, gave her Genl Hampton's house and a guard to take us there safely.... Arriving at the Preston house we found utter destruction. The beautiful gardens torn up in the mad hunt for buried treasure, the Bee hives knocked down and the honey pouring out....\"" . "Personal narratives" . . . . . . "The burning of the Ursuline Convent - Columbia, South Carolina, by Sherman's Army - 17 Feb. 1865" . . . . "History" . . "Includes photograph of cemetery with frame building at rear of lot: \"The old Catholic Church yard - Columbia, S.C. - Photo by Celina MacGregor.\" Cover of volume illustrated engraving of the 2nd National Confederate flag (adopted 1 May 1863 - Primarily a field of white, this design included a small battle flag in the canton)." . . . "Magrath describes student life at the boarding school, and the sounds from cadets at the military school for boys, the Arsenal Academy, located several blocks away: \"The pupils rose early. When the drum was beating for the Cadets to assemble on the Campus, we were going into the Chapel for Mass. [Where the temperature was] Sometimes so cold in the winter that ice formed in the basin used by the Priest in the Sanctuary....\"; another anecdote related to a classmate believed to have suffered from mental illness: \"a lovely fascinating girl, but in whose line ran the dreadful taint of insanity, her moods and waywardness were at first treated with some severity by the nuns - but as soon as they found out her family history nothing could exceed their gentleness and patience....\"" . . . . . . . "Final page includes clipping [ca. 1930s] from a Charleston newspaper of letter to the editor from Archie P. Owens condemning a tendency among Charleston natives to dream of the past, expressing support for recent efforts by the \"development Board\" to \"create an industrial urge out of a traditional dry rot,\" and reporting his conversation in 1907 with Sen. Ben Tillman in which Owens said that Charlestonians \"did not care for a commercial city, they lived in the past and thought more of Washington having slept in one of their homes than their waterfront rotting away for lack of enterprise.\"" . . . .