ON THIS DAY 150 Years Ago - Saturday, December 24, 1864 HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, Savannah, GA., SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, Numbers 141. December 24, 1864. I. General Easton, chief quartermaster, is charged with the general responsibility of public property in the city. He will take possession of all cotton and other quartermaster’s stores. He will also assign quarters to officers and troops, and designate such buildings, lots, &c., for public use, and have full control thereof. Officers serving with troops will not be allowed to occupy buildings in the city unless the troops are also doing duty in the city, and corps, division, and brigade quartermasters and commissaries will not be allowed to establish themselves at any depot in the city or elsewhere except upon consultation with the chief quartermaster or chief commissary of subsistence. The occupation and use of buildings or rooms for amusement will be regulated by General Easton, and no private property will be removed from buildings, or made use of, by officers or troops except by consent of him. II. The chief commissary of subsistence, Colonel Beckwith, will take possession of all subsistence stores and be charged with their distribution, as also the supplying of destitute families, conferring with the mayor of the city as regards the necessities, &c., and army commanders will not make issues directly. III. Corps commanders will furnish the chief quartermaster 500 men each, in regiments, for guard and fatigue duty. They will also use all effort to supply him with a force of negroes for labor. Recruiting agents are forbidden recruiting negroes for military service, as all are wanted for labor. IV. The provost-marshal’s department, under the direction of the commanding officer of the post, is charged with the maintenance of good order in the city and the guarding of prisoners, and has nothing to do with property. Passes within the city limits will not be required. By order of Major General W. T. Sherman: L. M. DAYTON, Aide-de-Camp HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Savannah, GA., December 24, 1864. Major-General WHEELER, Confederate Army, Screven’s Ferry, South Carolina: GENERAL: Yours of this date is received. I will let that lady land, but no more. No provision has been made for the families in Savannah, and many of them will suffer from want. I will not undertake to feed them. I will give notice that all families who wish to leave can do so, and will provide the means of getting them to General Hardee’s headquarters. You need not send in for small parties, and I will not permit any more flags of truce by subordinate commanders. I am, your obedient servant, W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General, Commanding. P. S. – If your pickets fire on our boats, I will clear Savannah and the river of all unfriendly parties. THUNDERBOLT BATTERY, Saturday, December 24, 1864-12. 30 p. m. Major General W. T. SHERMAN, U. S. Army, Commanding Army of the Military Division of the Mississippi: Vessels drawing fifteen feet and under can come up to this place now, entering at Wassaw Sound. The river has been dragged for torpedoes, and none have yet been discovered. The monitor Sangamon, Captain Young, and the Passaic, Captain Fillebrown, are now close beside the work at Turner’s Rocks, and will be at anchor at this place in a few hours. I have my vessel at work sounding and putting up marks for navigation, and will anchor here tonight. I respectfully recommend making this place your present depot for large vessels. A short wharf, 100 feet long, will suffice for vessels of deep draft, and materials for its construction are near at hand. Respectfully, CHAS. O. BOUTELLE, Assistant, Coast Survey, Commanding U. S. Steamer Bibb I have directed Brigadier-General Hazen to at once proceed in the work of dismantling Fort McAllister, and have the guns in readiness to be removed by water. Major-General Foster has promised to send the boats to transport them. The general suggests that, in order to facilitate their loading, they be first got onto flat-boats, from which they can be more readily hoisted aboard a ship. As soon as this is done General Hazen’s command will be withdrawn and assigned a position near the city. General Geary Issue Orders for the Occupation of Savannah: GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. CITY OF SAVANNAH, GA., Numbers 2. December 24, 1864. I. For convenience in military government all that portion of the city lying east of Bull street is designated as the eastern district; that lying west of Bull street, as the western district. Colonel William B. Woods, Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteers, is announced as provost-marshal of the eastern district; his headquarters will be in the U. S. barracks on Bull street. Colonel H. A. Barnum, One hundred and forty-ninth New York Volunteers, is announced as provost-marshal of the western district; his headquarters will be near the corner of Barnard and South Broad streets. All applications for protection of persons and private property, or for redress of grievances, will be made to the provost-marshal of the district or to the nearest officer of the guard. II. Each regiment on provost duty will have assigned to it definite limits within which to perform guard and patrol duty, and the regimental commanders will be held responsible for the peace and good order of their respective sections. The provost-marshals of districts will number the sections assigned to these regiments. III. All public and private property will be protected, and whenever necessary for such purpose special guards will be assigned. No private property will be taken or used against the consent of the owners, except upon an order from proper authority. IV. Officers and others entitled to quarters for private or public use will make application to Brigadier-General Easton, chief quartermaster. V. All persons within the city who have been in any way connected with the rebel army will report, without delay, to Captain Ira B. Seymour, provost-marshal (office in Exchange Building), and there register their names. VI. No citizen will be arrested except for misdemeanor, or upon written orders from these headquarters or from a provost-marshal. VII. The fire department of this city has been represented by the civil authorities as highly efficient. Mr. Casey, acting chief of the fire department, is authorized to continue operations, and will be held responsible for the faithful performance of his duties. All members of the different fire companies will continue subject to his orders, and neglect of duty on their part will be duly punished. In case of fire, the provost-marshal of the district will send immediately strong detachments of guards to preserve order in the vicinity. VIII. Those persons connected with the water-works and gas-works of the city will continue to perform their duties as usual. The manager of these works will apply to the provost-marshal of the district in which they are located for sufficient guards for the protection of the works, together with the fuel and other material pertaining to them. IX. All soldiers found within the city limits, absent from their camps without passes from their respective commanders, will be arrested and sent to their commands. X. Captain Silas Spicer is announced as harbor master of this port, and is invested with full authority for the transaction of business in his department. Office, on Bay, opposite Dayton street. XI. Citizens desirous of leaving the city to go within the rebel lines will make application at these headquarters. They will be transported to our exterior picket-line. XII. Citizens destitute of provisions can make application at the city store, where they will be supplied upon the order of Doctor Arnold, mayor of the city. XIII. Tattoo will be beaten throughout the city at 8 p.m.; taps at 9. After taps all enlisted men found on the streets who are not on duty, and who have not proper passes, will be arrested by the patrol. Suspicious or disorderly characters will also be arrested after that hour. Care must be taken in carrying out this order not to make improper arrests of citizens who may be attending to their lawful business in an orderly manner. HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN THE FIELD, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, December 24, 1864. Major-General H. W. HALLECK, Chief-of-Staff; Washington, D. C. GENERAL: I had the pleasure of receiving your two letters of the 16th and 18th instant to-day, and feel more than usually flattered by the high encomiums you have passed on our recent campaign, which is now complete by the occupation of Savannah. I am also very glad that General Grant has changed his mind about embarking my troops for James River, leaving me free to make the broad swath you describe through South and North Carolina; and still more gratified at the news from Thomas, in Tennessee, because it fulfills my plans, which contemplated his being able to dispose of Hood, in case he ventured north of the Tennessee River. So, I think, on the whole, I can chuckle over Jeff. Daviss disappointment in not turning my Atlanta campaign into a Moscow disaster. I have just finished a long letter to General Grant, and have explained to him that we are engaged in shifting our base from the Ogeeohee to the Savannah River, dismantling all the forts made by the enemy to bear upon the salt-water channels, transferring the heavy ordnance, etc., to Fort Pulaski and Hilton Head, and in remodeling the enemys interior lines to suit our future plans and purposes. I have also laid down the programme for a campaign which I can make this winter, and which will put me in the spring on the Roanoke, in direct communication with General Grant on James River. In general terms, my plan is to turn over to General Foster the city of Savannah, to sally forth with my army resupplied, cross the Savannah, feign on Charleston and Augusta, but strike between, breaking en route the Charleston & Augusta Railroad, also a large part of that from Branchville and Camden toward North Carolina, and then rapidly to move for some point of the railroad from Charleston to Wilmington, between the Santee and Cape Fear Rivers; then, communicating with the fleet in the neighborhood of Georgetown, I would turn upon Wilmington or Charleston, according to the importance of either. I rather prefer Wilmington, as a live place, over Charleston, which is dead and unimportant when its railroad communications are broken. I take it for granted that the present movement on Wilmington will fail. If I should determine to take Charleston, I would turn across the country (which I have hunted over many a time) from Santee to Mount Pleasant, throwing one wing on the peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper. After accomplishing one or other of these ends, I would make a bee-line for Raleigh or Weldon, when Lee world be forced to come out of Richmond, or acknowledge himself beaten. He would, I think, by the use of the Danville Railroad, throw himself rapidly between me and Grant, leaving Richmond in the hands of the latter. This would not alarm me, for I have an army which I think can maneuver, and I world force him to attack me at a disadvantage, always under the supposition that Grant would be on his heels; and, if the worst come to the worst, I can fight my way down to Albermarle Sound, or Newbern. I think the time has come now when we should attempt the boldest moves, and my experience is, that they are easier of execution than more timid ones, because the enemy is disconcerted by them--as, for instance, my recent campaign. I also doubt the wisdom of concentration beyond a certain extent, for the roads of this country limit the amount of men that can be brought to bear in any one battle, and I do not believe that any one general can handle more than sixty thousand men in battle. I think our campaign of the last month, as well as every step I take from this point northward, is as much a direct attack upon Lees army as though we were operating within the sound of his artillery. I am very anxious that Thomas should follow up his success to the very utmost point. My orders to him before I left Kingston were, after beating Hood, to follow him as far as Columbus, Mississippi, or Selma, Alabama, both of which lie in districts of country which are rich in corn and meat. I attach more importance to these deep incisions into the enemys country, because this war differs from European wars in this particular: we are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies. I know that this recent movement of mine through Georgia has had a wonderful effect in this respect. Thousands who had been deceived by their lying newspapers to believe that we were being whipped all the time now realize the truth, and have no appetite for a repetition of the same experience. To be sure, Jeff. Davis has his people under pretty good discipline, but I think faith in him is much shaken in Georgia, and before we have done with her South Carolina will not be quite so tempestuous. I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and do not think salt will be necessary. When I move, the Fifteenth Corps will be on the right of the right wing, and their position will naturally bring them into Charleston first; and, if you have watched the history of that corps, you will have remarked that they generally do their work pretty well. The truth is, the whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate, but feel that she deserves all that seems in store for her. Many and many a person in Georgia asked me why we did not go to South Carolina; and, when I answered that we were enroute for that State, the invariable reply was, Well, if you will make those people feel the utmost severities of war, we will pardon you for your desolation of Georgia. I look upon Colombia as quite as bad as Charleston, and I doubt if we shall spare the public buildings there as we did at Milledgeville. I have been so busy lately that I have not yet made my official report, and I think I had better wait until I get my subordinate reports before attempting it, as I am anxious to explain clearly not only the reasons for every step, but the amount of execution done, and this I cannot do until I get the subordinate reports; for we marched the whole distance in four or more columns, and, of course, I could only be present with one, and generally that one engaged in destroying railroads. This work of destruction was performed better than usual, because I had an engineer-regiment, provided with claws to twist the bars after being heated. Such bars can never be used again, and the only way in which a railroad line can be reconstructed across Georgia is, to make a new road from Fairburn Station (twenty-four miles southwest of Atlanta) to Madison, a distance of one hundred miles; and, before that can be done, I propose to be on the road from Augusta to Charleston, which is a continuation of the same. I felt somewhat disappointed at Hardees escape, but really am not to blame. I moved as quickly as possible to close up the Union Causeway, but intervening obstacles were such that, before I could get troops on the road, Hardee had slipped out. Still, I know that the men that were in Savannah will be lost in a measure to Jeff. Davis, for the Georgia troops, under G. W. Smith, declared they would not fight in South Carolina, and they have gone north, en route for Augusta, and I have reason to believe the North Carolina troops have gone to Wilmington; in other words, they are scattered. I have reason to believe that Beauregard was present in Savannah at the time of its evacuation, and think that he and Hardee are now in Charleston, making preparations for what they suppose will be my next step. Please say to the President that I have received his kind message (through Colonel Markland), and feel thankful for his high favor. If I disappoint him in the future, it shall not be from want of zeal or love to the cause. From you I expect a full and frank criticism of my plans for the future, which may enable me to correct errors before it is too late. I do not wish to be rash, but want to give my rebel friends no chance to accuse us of want of enterprise or courage. Assuring you of my high personal respect, I remain, as ever, your friend, W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 11:21:59 +0000
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