But Columbia was, as matters turned out, the worst place to which they could have been sent.

The silver was looted by troops under Sherman, and the bells were destroyed when the city was burned.

The fragments were, however, collected and sent to England, whence the bells originally came, and there they were recast.

Their music--perhaps the most characteristic of all the city's characteristic sounds--has been called "the voice of Charleston." Of the silver only a few fragments have been returned.

One piece was found in a pawn shop in New York, and another in a small town in Ohio.