“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty five thousand bales of cotton. “
Letter to President Lincoln December 22, 1864
Sherman wrote to President Lincoln shortly after bringing the Georgia campaign to a close by establishing the Union army following the city’s peaceful surrender. An acquaintance “suggested that I might [send] a welcome Christmas gift to the President, Mr. Lincoln, who peculiarly enjoyed such pleasantry. I accordingly sat down and wrote on a slip of paper, to be left at the telegraph-office for transmission.– He continues; his message actually reached him on Christmas-eve and was extensively published in the newspapers and made many a household unusually happy on that festive day; and it was the answer to this dispatch that Mr. Lincoln wrote me the letter of December 28th, beginning with the words “many, many thanks.”
No doubt a gift of a city is preposterous even outrageous. But for Sherman it was Savannah and not Atlanta that marked a change in tides in the war of secession. The confiscation of Confederates’ ammunition and cotton–ironically being sold to northern merchants to pay for their war against the Union– meant that he had effectively cut off their supplies and financial resources. More important by seizing the rebels’ stronghold deep in their own territory Grant’s army could focus on battling the dwindling but fiercely resolved armies of Lee. The end of the long, bloody war was in sight.
Sherman’s recollections of these days are not without understated hubris. They’re also peppered with ironic humor underscoring his relief and profound gratitude that the campaign was over and on his view, with minimal loss of life as he was able to avoid major battles by outmaneuvering his opponents.
The rebel army wasn’t Sherman’s biggest enemy and hence targets of his wrath. He was annoyed and angered by disinformation and ‘fake news’ of the press. Northern newspapers continued to accuse him of insanity and southern newspapers claimed his army was pillaging their land and livestock with no regard for life. He undoubtedly felt the sweetness of revenge when the northern papers had to admit in print that his strategies worked by informing the public of his ‘gift’ to the President. He placed strict rules on southern newspapers forbidding them to publish what he considered harmed the Union.
“No more than two newspapers will be published in Savannah; their editors and proprietors will be held to the strictest accountability, and will be punished severely in person and property, for any libelous publication, mischievous matter, premature news, exaggerated statements, or any comments whatever upon the actions of the constituted authorities; they will be held accountable for such articles even though copied from other papers. “
Special Field Order No. 143. No. 4
An advocate of freedom of press as we know it today, Sherman was not. He was amused that Confederate generals were requesting special care for their families and properties even while they were waging war against him.
“Before I had reached Savannah and during our stay there the rebel officers and newspapers represented the conduct of the men of our army as simply infamous; that we respected neither age nor sex; that we burned everything we came across …and perpetrated all manner of outrages on the inhabitants. Therefore it struck me as strange Generals Hardee and Smith should commit their families to our custody and even bespeak our personal care and attention.”
Sherman Memoirs II
Sherman remained in Savannah through mid January. Perhaps he wished to stay longer if not for its beauty but also as a respite from military drudgery. But he was ordered to move his army closer to Grant’s so they could close in on the remaining rebel armies led by Lee and Johnson. Before departing Sherman invited all die hard Confederates and dissenters to leave the city providing safe passage to rejoin their friends and families in Charleston and Augusta. By his count two hundred people left the city ‘to join the fortunes of their husbands and fathers’. He reestablished the authority of the mayor and city council to managed city’s affairs for the general interests of the people. He reports that: “The great bulk of the inhabitants chose to remain in Savannah, generally behaved with propriety, and good social relations at once arose between them and the army”. Churches reopened for worship. Stores and markets also “reopened, and provisions …were established, so that each family, regardless of race, color or opinion, could procure all the necessaries of life—if they had money.” For those who didn’t which were many, he made arrangement for food and other supplies to be acquired for “gratuitous distribution, which relieved the most pressing wants until the revival of trade and business enabled the people to provide for themselves.”
Amidst the demands of reestablishing public order for a besieged city of 20,000 and making preparations for the next segment of the campaign which he considered as more dangerous, Sherman found time to write a long letter to his wife and children. Most likely the second half of his salutation is what gave them their most profound joy:
“This is Christmas Day and I hope truly and really that you and the little ones may enjoy it, in the full knowledge that I am all safe after our long March.” December 25, 1865
Home Letters of General Sherman 1909
