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 20th,
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.
