“W. T. Sherman, Major-General.”
In all the world’s history of the Christmas times, was there ever a gift so memorable, or one more worthy to receive it? You will always recollect it with the delight expressed by a playful pen: “The sugar plum which Sherman dropped into the national stocking that Abraham Lincoln hung up, came in the semblance of Savannah. We have all enjoyed it. We have admired its roundness and its sweetness. We rejoice over the one hundred and fifty heavy guns, and the thirty-three thousand bales of cotton. The capture of Savannah is an event which we have long anticipated, and are therefore only quietly enjoying it. Reaching us, as the intelligence did, on a day that was meteorologically gloomy, it shed an interior sunlight brighter than a more substantial one.”
The quartermaster, in General Sherman’s behalf, a little later announced, that “all persons wishing to leave the city under existing orders, and go within the Confederate lines, are informed that the steamer F. R. Spalding will be in readiness at the wharf at the foot of Drayton Street, at six o’clock a. m. on Wednesday, the 11th instant, to transport them to Charleston, S. C. Wagons and ambulances will be sent to the residences of families, to take them and their baggage to the boat. As there are no conveniences on the boat to provide food, each family had better provide itself with what it will require for twenty-four hours.
“Applications for wagons and ambulances must be made to Captain J. E. Remington, assistant quartermaster, last house on the west end of Jones Street, south side.”
About two hundred citizens availed themselves of the opportunity thus offered them to rejoin their relatives or friends within the enemy’s lines. The new paper, the Loyal Georgian, thus hoisted its flag, with the notices following: “The mind that conceived, and the arm that, under Omnipotence, could execute these grand army movements, has not yet finished its work. That same powerful body which with its gigantic wings swept over the State of Georgia as a whirlwind, must yet move on its irresistible course until the whole land shall acknowledge the power and authority of the Government of the United States. When that day comes, the commander will lay aside his laurels, the soldier his sword, and this broad and fair abounding land of ours shall once more teem with the busy hum of peaceful life. May a merciful God grant the happy day soon to be ushered in upon us, and peace, sweet peace! be our portion; but until the ‘last armed foe expires,’ the army of the Union will and must stand as a bulwark against all destroyers, come from where they may.
“General Sherman has his headquarters at the house of Mr. Charles Green. General Howard’s headquarters are at the house of Mr. Molyneux, late British consul at Savannah, who is now in Europe. General Slocum’s headquarters are at the late residence of Hon. John E. Ward. General Geary, commandant of the post, has his office in the Bank building, next door to the Custom House.
“Divine service will be held in the Independent Presbyterian, the Lutheran, Baptist, St. John’s Church, and Methodist Churches, to-morrow morning at half-past ten o’clock, by their respective pastors.
| “I. S. K. Axson, | D. M. Gilbert, | |
| S. Landrum, | A. M. Wynn, | |
| C. F. McRae.” | ||
The condition of the city under the new rule was very clearly given by rebel papers. January 10th, the Richmond Whig, whose hatred of the North has been unsurpassed, was compelled to confess that General Sherman was wise and humane in his administration, as an extract will show:
“The Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel of the 4th instant publishes a number of news items, derived from a gentleman who left Savannah on the 1st instant.