SAVANNAH, Georgia, December 22, 1864.
To His EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, D.C.
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.
W. T. SHERMAN, MAJOR GENERAL.
Sherman had sent the message by vessel to Fort Monroe, whence it was telegraphed to Lincoln.
%446. Sherman marches northward.%—At Savannah the army rested for a month. Sherman tells us in his Memoirs that the troops grew impatient at this delay, and used to call out to him as he rode by: "Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond." So he was; but he did not wait very long, for on February 1, 1865, the march was resumed. The way was across South Carolina to Columbia, and then into North Carolina, with their old enemy, J. E. Johnston, in their front. Hood, in a rash moment, had besieged Thomas at Nashville; but Thomas, coming out from behind his intrenchments, utterly destroyed Hood's army. This forced Davis to put Johnston in command of a new army made up of troops taken from the seaport garrisons and remnants of Hood's army. In March, Sherman reached Goldsboro in North Carolina.
%447. Grant in Virginia.%—Meantime Grant had set out from Culpeper Courthouse on May 4, 1864, crossed the Rapidan, and entered the "Wilderness," a name given to a tract of country covered with dense woods of oak and pine and thick undergrowth. The fighting was almost incessant. The loss of life was frightful; but he pushed on to Spottsylvania Courthouse, and thence to Cold Harbor, part of the line of fortifications before Richmond. He would, as he said, "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," and went south of Richmond and besieged Petersburg.
%448. Early's Raid, 1864.%—Lee now sent Jubal Early with 20,000 soldiers to move down the Shenandoah valley, enter Maryland, and threaten Washington. This he did, and after coming up to the fortifications of the city, he retreated to Virginia. A little later, Early sent his cavalry into Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg.
Grant thought it was time to stop this, and sent Sheridan with an army to drive Early out of the Shenandoah valley. "It is desirable," said Grant, "that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return."
Sheridan set out accordingly, and on September 19 he met Early in battle at Winchester, and a few days later at Fishers Hill, beat him at both places, and sent him whirling up the valley. Sheridan followed for a time, and then brought his army back to Cedar Creek, after burning barns, destroying crops, and devastating the entire upper valley.