“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about 25,000 bales of cotton.” It was with these words that General Tecumseh Sherman announced the end of his six week march across Georgia to the sea, in a letter to President Lincoln. He had started in Atlanta and tore his way through Georgia to show the South that the War, for all practical purposes, was over. Sherman, who had made the famous quote, ‘War is Hell,’ had delivered the message clearly to the residents of Georgia. He had destroyed any infrastructure that could be used for war purposes such as railroad tracks, manufactories, crops, and other things as he saw fit. More than 300 miles of rail lines in 40 counties of central Georgia were rendered useless. He was not necessarily any more evil (despite Southern lore) than any other invading army would have been. But there is nothing pleasant about an invading army crossing in a haste your homeland at will.

It was not animosity when Sherman, who didn't want the mouths of the slaves who followed him in droves, pulled up his pontoon bridge before the slaves could follow his troops across the river. Many died trying to follow him as they drowned in the river. But even at that about 10,000 actually arrived in Savannah with him. Sherman and his generals made sure that they didn't overwhelm the city of Savannah. Most of them camped outside.

And so in December 1864 Sherman celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve in Savannah. He headquartered at the Green-Meldrim house where he would meet the black leaders of Savannah and issue Special Field Order No. 15, which promised to confiscate 400,000 acres of coastal land for redistribution to newly freed slaves as restitution for slavery. The churches were open. The people got fed. And then he marched north into South Carolina and into North Carolina and then into Virginia, and Lee was trapped. And 80 days after Savannah fell, Lee surrendered.

The Savannahians had brokered a non-violent surrender of the city with Sherman and his generals. It officially took place on December 21st . Sherman, probably influenced by the educator, physician, and  mayor Richard Arnold (he was a Union Democrat, against nullification in 1833, and a supporter of secession in 1860 as a last resort), Nellie Kinzie Gordon a direct descendant of the family that settled Chicago or the Pierpont connections, at least in part for his sparing of Savannah. But its importance as a port city to ship and receive troops and supplies also probably helped.

The city was quiet, the churches were open, people had food for Christmas dinners. In the suburbs of Savannah where people had very little food, the troops got together mule carts and sent mule carts of food out to the edges of the city. They even tied twigs to the heads of the mules so they'd look like reindeer to give an air of Christmas fair.

Savannah would survive practically untouched. The great architecture, squares, and people would not have an ideal Christmas but in actuality they received, from our modern perspective, one of the greatest gifts for Christmas: an untorched city. And as far as Lincoln was concerned it was one of the most expensive and expansive gifts he received in his lifetime. This Christmas we can surely appreciate, as we walk the decorated squares and architectural wonders of Savannah, for this gift that keeps on giving.

There are lost sheep and then there is James S. Pierpont. The Pierpont lineage was a proud one. James Pierpont his great grandfather was a Congregationalist minister who is credited with the founding of Yale University in the United States His grandmother married Johnathan Edwards.

His father, the Reverend John Pierpont (1785–1866), as would be expected graduated from Yale College in 1804. In 1819 he began serving as pastor at the Hollis Street Church in Boston (1819-1845). His father Pierpont was instrumental in establishing Boston's English Classical School in 1821.  He published two of the better-known early school readers in the United States, The American First Class Book (1823) and The National Reader (1827). However, Pierpont's latter years at the Hollis Street Church were characterized by controversy. His social activism for temperance and abolition would cause him to have to resign in 1845.

John Pierpont was an important influence on reform-minded antebellum poets. Along with John Greenleaf Whittier’s verse, Pierpont’s poems were frequently recited at public antislavery meetings. Oliver Johnson, a leading antislavery publisher and Garrison associate, published Pierpont’s Anti-Slavery Poems in 1843. The collection contains poems that had appeared mostly in the poetry columns of The Liberator and The National Anti-Slavery Standard. Pierpont’s writings were also anthologized widely in antislavery poetry collections, such as William Allen’s Autographs of Freedom (1853).Pierpont was an important influence on reform-minded antebellum poets. We can see in John his son Jame’s habit of being a contrarian with an artistic bent.

At the age of ten James ran away to sea aboard a whaling ship. He then served in the US Navy until the age of 21.   Eleven years later he returned to New England to be with his family. He quickly married Millicent Cowee and they settled in Medford, where they had three children. His father, Rev. John Pierpont, assumed a position as minister of a Unitarian congregation in Medford, Massachusetts in 1849. In 1849 James’ wanderlust took over and he fled to California to answer the call of the Gold Rush. He left his wife and three children in the capable hands of his father. He worked as a photographer and ran a store which caught on fire and left him desolate

When he returned he found his career as a composer. On March 27, 1852, James Pierpont published his composition "The Returned Californian", based on his experiences in San Francisco. He followed this with song after song. In 1855, he composed "The Starlight Serenade". Pierpont also composed "I Mourn For My Old Cottage Home" that year. In 1857, Pierpont had another successful hit song composition with a song written in collaboration with lyricist Marshall S. Pike, "The Little White Cottage" or "Gentle Nettie Moore".

Showing his different views from his father’s views on racial issues Pierpont published minstrel songs. Minstrel songs were popular in the 1850s and continued to be popular into the 20th century in the U.S. The lyrics to all minstrel songs reflect and mirror the racial stereotypes inherent in America. Minstrel songs and the minstrel genre exploited racial stereotypes and racially stereotypical language

In 1856, Millicent died. After James’ brother, the Rev. John Pierpont, Jr. (1819–1879), accepted a post with the Savannah, Georgia, Unitarian congregation, James followed, taking a post as the organist and music director of the church.

In August, 1857, James married Eliza Jane Purse, daughter of Savannah's mayor, Thomas Purse]. I I am not counting but before nine months were up Eliza gave birth to the first of their children, Lillie. Pierpont's children by his first marriage remained in Massachusetts with their grandfather.

But it was in a hot Savannah Summer in August of 1857 that he wrote the song that would immortalize him "The One Horse Open Sleigh" The song was copyrighted on September 16, 1857. The song was originally performed in a Sunday school concert on Thanksgiving in Savannah, Georgia. His brother John would leave Savannah behind as his abolitionist message was not appreciated. James, however, stayed in Savannah, and at the beginning of the Civil War, joined the Lamar Rangers, which became part of the Fifth Georgia Cavalry of the Confederacy

While working as the company clerk for his troop. He also wrote music for the Confederacy including "Our Battle Flag", "Strike for the South" and "We Conquer or Die". While his father’s poems were for the abolitionist’s movement, James songs were for the Confederacy. Thanksgiving dinners would have been interesting. While he worked for the Confederacy his father saw military service as a chaplain with the Union Army stationed in Washington, D.C. and later worked for the U.S. Treasury Department

After the war Pierpont moved to Quitman, Georgia. He became the organist in the Quitman’s Presbyterian Church. He also gave private piano lessons and taught at the Quitman Academy. retiring as the head of the Musical Department. Pierpont, ever the wanderer, spent his final days at his son's home in Winter Haven, Florida, where he died on August 5, 1893. At his request, he was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah beside his brother-in-law Thomas who had been killed in the first battle of Bull Run.

Pierpont’s musical legacy included a Bob Dylan based song "Nettie Moore" on the Modern Times (2006). The structure of the chorus and the first two lines ("Oh, I miss you Nettie Moore / And my happiness is o'er") of Bob Dylan's "Nettie Moore" are the same as those of "The Little White Cottage, or Gentle Nettie Moore", the ballad Pierpont published in 1857. The Sons of the Pioneers with Roy Rogers recorded "Gentle Nettie Moore" in August, 1934 for Standard Radio in Los Angeles.
 
Jingle Bells has been listed as one of the top 25 of the most recorded songs in history, beating out "My Old Kentucky Home", "The Stars and Stripes Forever", “Blue Skies”, “I Got Rhythm” and “Georgia on My Mind”. In recognition of the universal success of his composition, he was elected into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. "Jingle Bells" was the first song performed in space on December 16, 1965, when NASA astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, aboard Gemini 6, played it on a harmonica and bells for Mission Control. Both instruments are displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Although he was the lost sheep of the family he did make a name for himself and his song. Jingle Bells recalls the good times he had with his family in the North. It has also given much joy to people all over the world.

Savannah’s African American’s struggle for freedom and equality is long and storied. It is found in the earliest days of their arrival to this land that was so hostile to them. One of the first strugglers was personified in Andrew Bryan who was born enslaved in Goose Creek, South Carolina in 1737. He was later transported to a Savannah plantation. While he was a young man he heard the preaching of George Leile. Leile was the first African American to be ordained.  Leile, a slave, was licensed by the Baptists to preach in Georgia. Bryan and Leile became good friends and started preaching alongside of each other.

Leile evacuated with the British to Jamaica in 1782 at the end of the American Revolution.  Bryan stayed and was the only one of the three early black Baptist preachers in the colonies to remain in America. Bryan continued his work in Savannah and inherited Leile’s work at the Yamacraw and Brampton Plantations. Bryan began to develop a significant following in the Savannah area. The whites became suspicious at the crowds he seemed to draw and they harassed the slaves that attended the services. The slaves were punished with whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, and imprisonment. The church services were interrupted constantly by the whites. Bryan was accused of plotting of a rebellion, so he was beaten and thrown in jail. It was at this time Jonathan Bryan, his slaveholder, intervened with the authorities for his release. Jonathan Bryan was a leader of a group who were making efforts to evangelize their slaves which was at odds with most slaveholders, who thought the gospel might make the slaves rebellious. He secured a rice barn for the slaves’ meetings. This made the whites more comfortable because they could track their movements and if necessary attend the services.

The imprisonment and Bryan’s prayers for the men who beat him gained him respect among many whites but also increased his following among the black community. Bryan was eventually able to buy his wife’s and his own freedom. He created a hauling business that allowed him to buy property for church construction in 1790. The church that would be built on this land is called the Mother Church of Black Baptists. It was the first black Baptist church to be established in America. It was chartered under the name of Bryan Street African Baptist Church. By 1800, when the congregation had grown to about 700, they reorganized themselves as the First African Baptist Church. Later in 1832 a dispute over doctrine caused the church to split. The second church became known as First Bryan Baptist Church. Both congregations are descendants of Bryan's original congregation.

 The current church was built in the 1850s (completed in 1859) by both free African Americans and slaves. The builders made the bricks and built the church after they had labored in the fields all day. The church was the first building constructed of brick to be owned by African Americans in the state of Georgia. The holes in the sanctuary flooring form a design meant to look like tribal symbols. These were air holes for escaped slaves who would hide in the church, interpreted as in the pattern of a Kongo cosmogram, which served as a stop on the Underground Railroad (UGR). During the Civil War, the church housed runaway slaves in a 4-foot (1.2 m) space beneath the sanctuary floorboards. The upstairs balcony contains some of the original pews made by the slaves. On the sides of the pews are tribal symbols of the slaves who made the furniture. The stained-glass windows in the building date to 1885 and depict African-American subjects. It stands as an African American icon in the original struggle for freedom and justice in this new country where they now lived. (Information used from church website)

The church organized the first Sunday School for African Americans on July 26, 1826. First African Baptist Church grew steadily with 575 members in 1788, 850 in 1802, and 2,795 in 1831. Two satellite churches also emerged after 1800.

Bryan died on October 12, 1812. He never saw the current church building. He preached until he was ninety-one. His [missing something here] was held prestige in both white and black Baptist circles in the United States and in England. He is buried in Savannah’s Laurel Grove Cemetery.

While he may never have seen the church building that stands today, he probably did envision the role it played in the freedom movement of his people. Today, an estimated twenty to twenty-five thousand visitors tour each year.