The Big Christmas Gift

Green-Meldrim House

“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.

---

General William Tecumseh Sherman

Mayor Richard Arnold