“Evidently it is a material element in this campaign to produce among the people of Georgia a thorough conviction of the personal misery which attends war, and of the utter helplessness and ability of their ‘rulers,’ State or Confederate, to protect them.”
So observed Maj. Henry Hitchcock — one of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s staff officers — on Dec. 1, 1864, as Federal troops prepared their next movements in the Savannah Campaign.
Advancing on Millen, the site of the Confederacy’s Camp Lawton prison camp, the Federals hoped to save their incarcerated brothers. But weeks earlier, anticipating Sherman’s approach, officials emptied the camp and relocated the prisoners to other locations. Sherman’s men would find only stockade walls surrounding a vacant yard.
While the South did not have enough soldiers in Georgia to ebb the rolling blue tide, it still had senior officers to send to the state.
Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard received command of the entire theater of operations on Dec. 1. He arrived in Augusta five days later to oversee operations — and Maj. Gen. Joe Wheeler gained yet another officer issuing orders to his horsemen, as they attempted to launch quick-strike missions against the Federals. But Northerners under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick turned the tables on Wheeler on Dec. 4; Kilpatrick’s cavalry attacked and defeated Wheeler’s men near Waynesborough.
Several unfortunate incidents occurred as the Federal trek across Georgia neared conclusion. Union Maj. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, with the left wing, faced an ever-increasing number of formerly enslaved persons falling in behind his troops. Fearing their presence would slow his advance, Davis — who got away with murder in 1862, when he killed his commanding officer over a disagreement in Kentucky — again displayed his dark side.
On Dec. 3, after his men crossed Buckhead Creek, Davis pulled up his pontoon bridges and attempted to leave the African-Americans stranded on the far bank. Most made their way across the shallow Buckhead and rejoined Davis’s force.
Six days later, after his troops crossed Ebenezer Creek, Davis again pulled the pontoons. This time, the outcome was tragedy. The former slaves — frightened by Wheeler’s approaching cavalry — tried to cross the deeper waters of Ebenezer. Many drowned, despite efforts by several Federal soldiers to save them.
For the blessed few who reached safety, Davis repeated the act later the same day when crossing Lockner Creek.
One of Davis’ officers wrote of the Ebenezer Creek incident, “The idea of five or six hundred black women, children and old men being thus returned to slavery by such an infernal copperhead as Jeff. C. Davis was entirely too much for my Democracy.”
The Federals reached the outer defenses of Savannah on Dec. 10, and the marching portion of the campaign ended. Sherman immediately set his sights on capturing Fort McAllister. The Confederate bastion blocked access to the Ogeechee River and kept the Federals from establishing a connection with U.S. ships, offshore in the Atlantic, that carried supplies for the army.
McAllister must fall! Utilizing reconnaissance from Kilpatrick and his own observations, Sherman decided an attack from the landward approach provided his best chance to take the fort. McAllister’s heavy guns all faced toward the water; defensive measures against an attack from the rear would not prove formidable.
Confederate Maj. George Anderson and a garrison of around 120 men held Fort McAllister. Brig. General William Hazen attacked with nine regiments on Dec. 13, and Anderson’s men put up a gallant effort. Artillerymen attempted to roll cannon into the open and throw canister, but the firing — absent the protection of redoubts — allowed Federal sharpshooters to drop the gunners.
A series of land mines — or as the soldiers called them, “torpedoes” — obstructed the Federal advance and produced several casualties, yet on came Hazen’s men. In less than 15 minutes, the fort fell. Hazen used captured Confederates to remove unexploded torpedoes so the balance of his force could occupy McAllister.
Opening his connection with the Navy, Sherman met with Rear Adm. John Dahlgren. Then, he sent a surrender demand to Lt. Gen. William Hardee in Savannah. Hardee refused the offer and awaited instructions from President Jefferson Davis. Davis decided the preservation of the army in the field would prove more important than possessing Savannah. On Dec. 20, the Confederates began crossing hastily constructed pontoon bridges onto South Carolina soil.
Savannah Mayor R.D. Arnold surrendered the city to advance elements of the Federal force on Dec. 21. At the time, Sherman was visiting Maj. Gen. John Foster in Hilton Head, S.C. Returning to his troops the next day, Sherman sent his famous telegram to President Abraham Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.” The city was given up without a fight, and Sherman spared it.
The March to the Sea ended. Sherman’s troops occupied Savannah until Jan. 21, 1865, when they launched the Carolinas Campaign. The Civil War continued until early May 1865, when the last elements of Confederate resistance surrendered to Federal forces.
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