This was a kind and honorable provision—giving the unfortunate race just the opportunity which was desired of self-culture and progress. They do not desire to come north and mix with the white population, but own themselves, and have a fair opportunity for improvement.
An “Educational Association” followed, to establish schools for the freedmen, which should be taught by those of their own people already possessed of some learning. All were invited to join it by paying three dollars. The first evening the number of members swelled the fund to more than seven hundred dollars. Then five hundred children were gathered together to be formed into schools. Rev. J. W. Alvord was a leading philanthropist in the work. They were divided into ten schools, of fifty scholars, and, with a teacher at the head of each, marched in a procession two by two through the city—a strange spectacle indeed to all beholders! “The procession marched on till they came to the old Slave-market—a large building, three stories high. General Geary, who now commands the city, said they might have this for a school-house. So they took possession of it, placing the children along the very platforms where the old slave-traders used to set men and women to be examined for sale. The fathers and mothers of the children looked on in wonder to think what a change had taken place; while many wept joyful tears, and shouted praises to God who had done such great things for them.”
But oh, the sad want and suffering of the masses in the conquered city! All that could be done by General Sherman to alleviate the famine, was promptly offered.
The mayor and a few of the citizens had not only a formal meeting to express loyalty to the Stars and Stripes, so long dishonored there, but asked for an exchange of rice for other articles of food. For this purpose a vessel was sent by permission of the commander-in-chief to New York. That city, Boston, and Philadelphia, immediately took measures to forward supplies. The accompanying message of the mayor of Boston was a fraternal and excellent tender of former friendship and a renewal of old associations. When, on January 19th, the steamship Rebecca Clyde lay at the wharf with her large cargo of provisions, the mayor thanked the people of the North for their generosity, and complimented very warmly the “wise and impartial administration” of General Geary. He said: “He has restored order out of chaos, and made the people of Savannah feel that the Northern army has not come among them to ruin or pillage them. Life and property have been as safe during the Federal occupation as it ever had been under civil rule.”
Captain Veale, of General Geary’s staff, replied, assuring the mayor that the “Federal officers and soldiers had always treated the people of the South with kindness and forbearance, and hoped that they would soon again join in one bond of brotherhood for the preservation and welfare of our common country. He also thanked the mayor for his high eulogium on General Geary, and assured him that the general’s object was to promote the welfare of Savannah and make her citizens feel that the Northern army was not inimical to the South.”
Savannah in the old Revolutionary days extended her hand in time of trouble to Massachusetts, whose sons repay the debt of gratitude with unfeigned delight.
Such were the events and scenes attending the return of the old flag to its place in Savannah, never again to be trailed in the dust by traitorous hands.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Major-General Sherman appreciated at Home—A Conflagration—A New and Bolder Campaign—An amusing Letter from a Rebel—General Sherman begins his March—Perils and Progress—Branchville and Columbia—Charleston.
