DECEMBER 18, 1864:
General William
Tecumseh Sherman U.S.A.’s troops wait patiently outside Savannah. On this day,
Sherman sends General William Hardee C.S.A. a note demanding the city’s
surrender. Hardee refuses to parley.
Their
correspondence is reprinted below:
SHERMAN:
You have doubtless
observed from your station at Rosedew that sea-going vessels now come through
Ossabaw Sound and up Ogeechee to the rear of my army, giving me abundant
supplies of all kinds, and more especially heavy ordnance necessary to the
reduction of Savannah. I have already received guns that can cast heavy and
destructive shot as far as the heart of your city; also, I have for some days
held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah
can be supplied; and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the
city of Savannah and its dependent forts, and shall await a reasonable time
your answer before opening with heavy ordnance. Should you entertain the
proposition I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and
garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, and the slower and surer
process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest
measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—burning to avenge a
great national wrong they attach to Savannah and other large cities which have
been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war.
HARDEE:
I have to acknowledge
receipt of a communication from you of this date, in which you demand "the
surrender of Savannah and its dependent forts," on the ground that you
have "received guns that can cast heavy and destructive shot into the
heart of the city," and for the further reason that you "have for
some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison can
be supplied." You add that should you be "forced to resort to
assault, or to the slower and surer process of starvation, you will then feel
justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and will make little effort to
restrain your army" &c. The position of you forces, a half a mile
beyond the outer line for the land defenses of Savannah, is, at the nearest
point, at least four miles from the heart of the city. That and the interior
line are both intact. Your statement that you "have for some days held and
controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison can be supplied"
is incorrect. I am in free and constant communication with my department. Your
demand for the surrender of Savannah and its dependent forts is refused. With
respect to the threats conveyed in the closing paragraphs of your letter, of
what may be expected in case your demand is not complied with, I have to say
that I have hitherto conducted the military operations intrusted to my
direction in strict accordance with the rules of civilized warfare, and I
should deeply regret the adoption of any course by you that may force me to
deviate from them in future.
Sherman
is not perturbed; he knows this is a waiting game.
Sherman writes to Grant:
This may seem a hard species of warfare, but it brings the sad realities
of war home to those who have been . . . instrumental in involving us in its
attendant calamities.
