PHOTO: We’ve come a long way in 152 years

As the legislature gears up to start next week, here’s a little perspective.  Civil War photographer George Barnard snapped this image of the rear of the crushed “new” Statehouse in Columbia following Columbia’s destruction in February 1865 by Union forces led by Gen. William T. Sherman.  After giving Savannah to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift in 1864, Sherman’s 60,000+ troops turned north to savage the Palmetto State.  Photo from the Library of Congress.