“A majority of the citizens have provisions for some time to come, but there is a scarcity of wood, but General Sherman has announced that he will soon remedy this last difficulty by getting wood via the Gulf Railway, and hauling it to the citizens.
“No pass is allowed to any male person to go toward the city.
“All females who are caught going toward the city are thoroughly searched.
“Eleven hundred loaves of good baker’s bread, which had been collected for the soldiers of Sherman’s army, but for which authorized agents did not call, were on Thursday turned over to the Poor Association of Savannah by the Committee acting in behalf of the Soldier’s Dinner, and were yesterday distributed to the poor of the city. It was truly a kind and providential gift, for the city is entirely out of breadstuffs of every kind, and for days past have been unable to issue a pound of meal or flour to the hundreds who were sorely in need of it.”
General Sherman had a very summary way of answering inquiries of the citizens on whose lips was the gall of secession. To a proud lady who said to him: “General, you may conquer, but you can’t subjugate us,” he instantly replied, “I don’t want to subjugate you, I mean to kill you, the whole of you, if you don’t stop this rebellion.” In conversation a short time since with several citizens of Savannah on the subject of the war, General Sherman, in his characteristic manner, remarked: “We wish to cultivate friendly feeling with your people; if they love monarchy we will not quarrel with them; but we love a strong republic and mean to maintain it.” He also said he had been through Mississippi twice and through Georgia once. “The sun goes North on the 21st, and by that time I shall be ready to go North, too.” In a private letter to a distinguished military man in New York, his noble and magnanimous spirit appears:
“Colonel Ewing arrived to-day, and bore me many kind tokens from the North, but none gave me more satisfaction than to know that you watched with interest my efforts in the national cause. I do not think a human being could feel more kindly toward an enemy than I do to the people of the South, and I only pray that I may live to see the day when they and their children will thank me, as one who labored to secure and maintain a Government worthy the land we have inherited, and strong enough to secure our children the peace and security denied us.
“Judging from the press, the world magnifies my deeds above their true value, and I fear the future may not realize its judgment. But whatever fate may befall me, I know that you will be a generous and charitable critic, and will encourage one who only hopes in this struggle to do a man’s share.”
Two days later a gentleman addressed a note to General Sherman, asking questions designed to draw from him his views upon the prospects of Georgia, and her relations to the General Government. His reply is marked with his original thought, and reveals his high ability as a statesman:
“Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, }
In the Field, Savannah, Ga., Jan. 8, 1865. }