Savannah, Georgia

“ There is no scarcity of news here from the interior, but Savannah is, as yet, a focus which receives all these diverse rays of intelligence and reflects none back again. The town is full of black and white refugees from all parts of Georgia; both races are daily coming in large numbers, some for supplies, some to find what the policy of the Government is likely to be, some to go North. ”

“ Savannah, in Chatham county, a port of entry, and the principal emporium of Georgia, is situated on the river of the same name, seventeen miles from its mouth. It is built on a sandy cliff, elevated forty feet above low tide. Vessels drawing fourteen feet of water come up to the city; larger vessels stop three miles below. The city is regularly laid out, and contains ten squares, that, with the public walks, are planted with the Pride of China trees, which contribute much to the salubrity, comfort and ornament of the place. The streets are unpaved, and very sandy. ”

“ There are a number of good private schools, besides an efficient public school system. Telfair Hospital for Women, Savannah Hospital, Saint Joseph's Hospital, and the Georgia Infirmary for Colored People are prominent institutions. Near the city are several salt water resorts, which are largely frequented during the summer.
Savannah is surrounded by a fertile territory, especially adapted to the cultivation of rice, cotton, sugar-cane, vegetables, and fruits. Four great railway lines enter the city: the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Southern, and the Central of Georgia. ”

“ Savannah and Augusta still exist and are justly reckoned among the most opulent, beautiful, and attractive cities of the Empire State of the South. In their locations the judgment of the early Colonists has been sanctioned by the favorable experience of nearly a century and a half. New Inverness has given place to Darien which, amid shifting fortunes, is still supported by the lumber trade and the rice crop of the Alatamaha. Of the memories of Frederica, Sunbury, New and Old Ebenezer, Bethany, Hardwick, and Abercorn, we have already spoken ”

“ But the majority of our people were so poor that they were obliged to remain at home, and endure trials more grievous than before.
The conduct of British soldiers in Savannah was such that Whig families residing there found it almost unendurable. But the women bore these hardships with a fortitude becoming the wives of patriots.
At last, three years after the seige of Savannah, Georgia was free of the hated British. Gradually the [65] people returned to their former homes and vocations. But what a sad home-coming! War had laid its desolating hand upon the face of the country. ”

“ HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY
CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, December 26, 1864.
Major-General W. T. SHERMAN, Savannah, Georgia.
GENERAL: Your very interesting letter of the 22d inst., brought by Major Grey of General Foster's staff; is fast at hand. As the major starts back at once, I can do no more at present than simply acknowledge its receipt. The capture of Savannah, with all its immense stores, must tell upon the people of the South. All well here. ”

“ Jasper was later killed with the flag in his arms, in the French-American attempt to take Savannah from the British. Monterey Square has a statue of Count Pulaski, who also fell at the siege of Savannah. Another Revolutionary hero remembered with a monument is General Nathanael Greene who, though born in Rhode Island, moved after the war to [Pg 555] Georgia where, in recognition of his services, he was given an estate not far from Savannah. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, a Pennsylvanian by birth, also accepted an estate in Georgia and resided there after the Revolution. ”

“ He soon went to Savannah, Georgia, expecting to secure a position as a teacher, but was disappointed, and accepted the invitation of Mrs Nathanael Greene, the widow of the Revolutionary general, to spend some time on her plantation on the Savannah river, while deciding upon his future course. ”

“ These provinces had but recently been at war with each other, when Georgia was successfully invaded by the British. Sir Henry Clinton despatched Colonel Campbell thither with 3500 men, by sea, under convoy of Admiral Parker, and on his arrival his first object was the reduction of the city of Savannah, the capital of Georgia, which was defended by the American General Robert How. The whole country between Savannah and the sea was impassable to troops, being low, marshy, and intersected by creeks and artificial watercourses. ”

“ On the 1st of May lots were drawn upon which houses were to be erected in the town of Ebenezer. The day following, the hearts of the people were rejoiced by the coming of ten cows and calves,—sent as a present from the Magistrates of Savannah in obedience to Mr. Oglethorpe’s order. Ten casks “full of all Sorts of Seeds” arriving from Savannah, set these pious peoples to praising God for all His loving kindnesses. Commiserating their poverty, the Indians gave them deer, and their English neighbors taught them how to brew a sort of beer made of molasses, sassafras, and pine tops. ”

“ No sails whiten the blue waters of Midway river save those of a miserable little craft employed by its owner in conveying terrapins to Savannah. The old cemetery is so overgrown with trees and brambles that the graves of the dead can scarcely be located after the most diligent search. Fort Morris is enveloped in a wild growth of cedars and myrtle. Academy, churches, market, billiard room, wharves, store-houses, residences, all gone; only the bold Bermuda covered bluff and the beautiful river with the green island slumbering in its embrace to remind us of this lost town. ”

“ The design of transferring the Capital of the Colony from Savannah to Hardwick, conceived by Governor Reynolds, was adhered to by his successor, Governor Ellis. “The depth of water in the river, its more central position, its greater distance from Charleston—the proximity to which, he argued, restricted the commerce of Savannah—the convenience of its harbour as a naval station, and the fertility of its adjacent lands, were the principal motives which operated with him to enforce the plan suggested by his predecessor. ”

“ The king not only presented him with valuable equipments, but Parliament granted him a liberal sum, to which wealthy citizens added. He had the best wishes of his entire country when he sailed for America with one hundred and fourteen persons. He named the new colony Georgia in honor of the king, and began the settlement of Savannah in 1733, Darien and Augusta being founded three years later. It need hardly be said of such a man, that, like Penn and Baltimore, he bought the lands anew of the Indians and retained their friendship from the start. ”

“ Another contemporaneous account is almost identical; “On the Georgia side [of the Savannah river] , twelve miles from Purysburg, is the Town of Ebenezer, which thrives very much; there are very good Houses built for each of the Ministers, and an Orphan House; and they have partly framed Houses and partly Huts, neatly built, and formed into regular streets; they have a great deal of Cattle and Corn-Ground, so that they sell Provisions at Savannah; for they raise much more than they can consume.” ”

“ The little property that they possessed when the war began had either been spent in maintaining the struggle, or well-nigh destroyed by the raids of the British and Tories. In the larger communities of Savannah and Augusta, the citizens had the resources of trade and commerce to fall back on, but in the smaller settlements and rural districts the condition of the inhabitants bordered on destitution.
At the time that Savannah was surrendered to the American troops, there was almost a famine in the land. The soldiers were without shoes, and sometimes they were without supplies. ”

“ I observe this also in the more free and happier life of the negroes in Savannah; in the permission which is given them there to have their own churches, and where they themselves preach. Besides this, much is done in Georgia for the instruction of the negro-slaves in Christianity, for their emancipation, and their colonisation at Liberia, on the coast of Africa. And every year a vessel goes thence from Savannah, with coloured emigrants from among the emancipated slaves of the slave-states, provided with the necessaries of life, money, and furniture for their dwellings. ”

“ In Savannah we see a church growing under the labors of George Liele, then we find Liele and Amos in the British West Indies, leading large congregations of Negro Baptists. Once more we turn our eyes homeward, and we are attracted to the church at Silver Bluff, South Carolina, to the church at Augusta, Georgia, and the church at Savannah, which, having endured the severest trials, rejoices in recognition and peace—the church of today. ”

“ Augusta is regarded as one of the most beautiful of the Southern cities, having wide tree-embowered streets and many ornate buildings, and it fortunately escaped injury during the Civil War. It was laid out by General Oglethorpe, the Georgia founder, on the same artistic plan as Savannah, and he named it after the English princess, Augusta. The Savannah River, the largest of Georgia, and forming the boundary with South Carolina, rises in the Blue Ridge in close proximity to the headwaters of the Tennessee and the Chattahoochee. ”

“ Governor Gilmer, from whose writings all facts about Austin Dabney are taken, tells a very interesting anecdote about him. In order to collect the pension which the United States Government allowed on account of his broken thigh, Austin went once a year to Savannah. Once when he was on his way to draw what was due him, he fell in with Colonel Wiley Pope, his neighbor, who was also journeying to Savannah. They were very intimate and social on the road, and until they found themselves in the streets of Savannah. ”

“ The citizens of Georgia, through their munificent bequests, have erected in Monterey Square a monument to Count Pulaski, the corner-stone of which was laid when General La Fayette visited America for the last time.
Savannah has made another fine exhibit of her discriminating powers in selecting a retired and lovely spot, made sacred to them by depositing all that remains of the loved ones who have crossed the river a little before. ”

“ Without lynching we would live in mortal terror day and night. As it is, we have far less trouble with the negroes than you do in the North, and the vast majority of them get along better with us than they do with you.”
Good friends squandered a considerable amount of time and gasolene to show us the region round about Savannah. Despite their warning that this floor-flat coast land was not the real Georgia, we found the mile after mile of cream-white roads, built of the oyster-shells that hang like the bluffs of mountain spurs above its coastal waters, teeming with interest to Northern eyes. ”

“ A mile to the eastward the village of Hampstead was formed the same year, and peopled by twelve families,—chiefly German. These settlers were engaged in gardening, and their principal business was to supply the inhabitants of Savannah with vegetables. ”

“ Three months were allowed for the incoming of the disaffected and deserters, and Savannah was designated as the place where the oath of allegiance would be administered. The proclamation of the 11th of January, 1779, was even more onerous. A reward of two guineas was [198] offered for the apprehension of every citizen still adhering to the Rebel cause, and ten guineas were promised upon the surrender of a Committee or Assembly man to any commanding officer of the King’s garrisons. Prices were prescribed for all articles of merchandise and country produce. ”

“ The ultimate consequence was, that the king, in January, 1764, extended the limits of Georgia, including within them all that country which had been within the chartered limits of South Carolina, and limiting the south boundary of that colony by the northern stream of Savannah River, as far as the head of the same. The language of the letters-patent, granted to Sir James Wright, is, that the colony of Georgia shall be bounded on the north by the most northern stream of a river, then commonly called Savannah, as far as the head of the said river ”

“ In February, General Greene being reinforced by the Pennsylvanian troops under Wayne, despatched him into Georgia, when Clarke, who commanded there for the British, drew in his outposts, and having ravaged and destroyed everything in his way, retired to Savannah. The people of Georgia, republicans and loyalists, were so impoverished by mutual plunder, that even seed-corn was hardly to be had. In June, Wayne’s camp was attacked by a body of Creek Indians, who, however, were repulsed with loss. In July, the British forces evacuated Savannah, carrying with them not less than 5,000 negroes. ”

“ The councilors in England encouraged emigration. Swiss peasants, Scotch Highlanders, and German Protestants all found a home on the Savannah. In April of 1734, Oglethorpe made a visit to England. It was said in London that no colony was ever before founded so wisely as Georgia. The councilors prohibited the importation of rum. Traffic with the Indians was regulated by a license. Slavery was positively forbidden. While the governor was still abroad, a company of Moravians arrived at Savannah. ”

“ Since the founding of Georgia as a bulwark against the Spaniards and French, Savannah has had an ardent martial spirit, and there are five military organizations—the Chatham Artillery, formed in 1786, one of the oldest military companies in the United States; the Savannah Volunteer Guards, organized in 1802 as an infantry corps, now a coast artillery corps of four companies; the Georgia Hussars, formed after the War of 1812 by the consolidation of two other companies ”