Siege of Savannah
(1864)
On 10 December, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman approached Savannah. A skillful Confederate defense at Honey Hill kept the railroad open to Charleston, South Carolina. But Fort McAllister, eighteen miles southwest of Savannah and commanding the southern water approach, was captured, and connection was established with the Union supply fleet. Greatly outnumbered, but his line of escape still open, General William J. Hardee, the Confederate commander, after a brief defense on the night of 20 December, withdrew into South Carolina. Sherman telegraphed President Abraham Lincoln: "Ibeg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the City of Savannah."
Bibliography
Glatthaar, Joseph T. The March to the Sea and Beyond. New York: New York University Press, 1985.
Jones, Charles C. The Siege of Savannah in December 1864. Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1874.
Royster, Charles. The Destructive War. New York: Knopf, 1991.
