Her fortitude during the Union occupation of Columbia, South Carolina, saved the buildings of the Barhamville Institute from the widespread fires.

"Added to unusual natural artistic and musical gifts ... her lofty character, pure ideals, abhorrence of the insincere and the false, made her a person whose impress upon young people was above the price of rubies.

In 1833 Sophie married a wounded Polish officer named Josef Stanislaus Sosnowski at Strasbourg Cathedral.

[5] The couple emigrated to Erie, Pennsylvania, where Josef speculated unsuccessfully in real estate and lost the family assets in the Panic of 1837.

Bishop Stephen Elliott recruited Sosnowski to teach at Montpelier Female Institute in Georgia,[10] where she stayed until she moved back to Columbia in 1850.

Generally "... the stock image of the typical German immigrant, before and during the Civil War, is that of a principled, upright, freedom-loving supporter of the Union.

After the Civil War, she wrote that "While slavery was in general a blessing [sic] to the Negro, still the institution in the abstract was antagonistic to the spirit of our age; hence it had to fall.

"[13] In 1856–57, Sosnowski again took a position at the Barhamville Institute, a prestigious school that aspired to teach young women at the collegiate level.

[20] A German-American military officer named Frank Schaller joined Sosnowski's circle and married Sophie Augusta in 1863.

[24] During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Sosnowski  – and sometimes her family and students – tended to the Confederate wounded, who had been brought to Richmond and Columbia.

When Sosnowski heard that the Union army was heading toward Columbia, she arranged transportation for the remaining students to go to the Upcountry, a difficult task when the enemy approaches and disorder reigns at the railroad station.

The Union Army assigned soldiers to protect certain buildings such as schools and some guards arrived at the Barhamville Institute on first night.

Sosnowski told Sherman that the deportment of the soldiers compared unfavorably to that of their European equivalents and complained about the suffering from the war and occupation, especially to civilians.

[32] Sosnowski met a unit of friendly Irish American soldiers, who spend the third night at Barhamville and drove off marauders.

She wrote – perhaps referring to the 14th Amendment – that “... to place the Negro on the same level with the Caucasian race, must be considered by every reflecting mind, a great political blunder.