Riverbanks Zoo and Garden and Plants in Garden Supplies Directory

In February 1865, Confederate troops burned down the old State Road Bridge, a covered bridge crossing the Saluda River, in a futile attempt to keep General William T. Shermans army from entering the city of Columbia. Sherman countered the effort by immediately ordering the construction of a temporary bridge. It is believed that this pontoon, or floating, bridge may have been made out of lumber from the Saluda mill. The old State Road Bridge was located near Camp Sorghum, roughly five acres of open field turned prisonerofwar camp, where Confederate troops attempted to detain nearly 1,300 Union soldiers in 1864. There were no secure boundaries surrounding the area, however, so escapes and attempts were recurrent. The camps name symbolized the prisoners restricted diet of cornbread and sorghum a cereal grass. When word came of Shermans advance on Columbia, any remaining prisoners were temporarily moved to a more secure location, the state mental institution. They were later transferred to Charlotte, NC, when the Confederate surrender became imminent in February 1865.

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