22 December
1864 A.D. GEN William
Tecumseh Sherman Presents Christmas Gift to President Abraham Lincoln: Savannah, GA.
“War is hell.”
Editors. “Sherman
Presents Lincoln with a Christmas gift.”
History.com. N.d. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sherman-presents-lincoln-with-a-christmas-gift. Accessed 22 Dec 2014.
On this day in 1864, Union General William T. Sherman presents the city of Savannah, Georgia, to President Abraham Lincoln. Sherman captured the city after his famous March to the Sea from Atlanta. Savannah had been one of the last major ports that remained open to the Confederates.
After Sherman captured Atlanta in September 1864,
he did not plan to stay for long. There was still the Confederate army of
General John Bell Hood in the area, and cavalry leaders like Nathan Bedford
Forrest and Joe Wheeler, who could threaten Sherman's supply lines. In
November, Sherman dispatched part of his force back to Nashville, Tennessee, to
deal with Hood while Sherman cut free from his supply lines and headed south
and east across Georgia. Along the way, his troops destroyed nearly everything
in their path. Sherman's intent was to wreck the morale of the South and bring the
war to a swift end.
For nearly six weeks, nothing was heard from
Sherman's army. Finally, just before Christmas, word arrived that Sherman's
army was outside Savannah. A Union officer reached the coast and found a Union
warship that carried him to Washington, D.C., to personally deliver news
of the success. Sherman wired Lincoln with the message, "I beg to present
you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty
of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton."
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