December 21, 1864---“I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah.”

DECEMBER 21, 1864:      

“I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah.” With those words, Sherman’s March To The Sea ends. After William Hardee’s Confederates marches out of the city on the night of the 20^th, the City Fathers of Savannah hold a hurried meeting. It is decided to cede the city to the Union if Sherman promises not to destroy it as he had Atlanta and so many other places along his route.

Amazingly, Sherman agrees to spare the city, and for more reasons than the pragmatic one that Savannah is an important port city. Sherman, who is in truth a sensitive man and (it should be recalled) a longtime resident of the South, is charmed by the grand old city, its lovely houses, its live oaks, and its history as the oldest city in Georgia, the first State capital, and as a Revolutionary War site. Due to Sherman’s nostalgia for the Old South, the lovely historic district of old Savannah still exists to this day. 

In truth, many people in Savannah (and not just the newly-freed blacks) are relieved (if not happy) to see the Yankees. Most of the town’s citizens are sick of the war, sick of privation, and sick of the disruption caused by transients, drunken soldiers on leave, war profiteers, and cut-purses. The merchants want trade, the laborers want work, the women want their husbands home from the war, and everyone wants normality.