Savannah in the Civil War - A Chronology of Key Events

Part 2: 1863 to December 21, 1864

For Part 1 (1861-1862) Click here

For Part 3 (December 21, 1864 - April 1865) Click here

by Lawrence Martin

Summary of all lp.com Civil War web sites | Return to Lakeside Press

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Notables in Civil War Savannah

In alphabetical order, with internet links (hover over the name, then click for web link)

Arnold was a physician and mayor of Savannah when Sherman's army arrived. He went out with some alderman early in the morning of 12/21/1864 to surrender the defenseless city and plead that it not be destroyed. He is credited with helping the city avoid destruction. Arnold later became the first Secretary of the American Medical Association.

One of the first Savannahians to die in the Civil War. He was a prominent attorney and captain in the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, a Savannah militia unit. Took part in the January 1861 expedition that seized Fort Pulaski. Bartow also attended Georgia's secession convention in Milledgeville, Jan 16-19, 1861. His unit volunteered for the Confederate army and fought in the first civil war battle at Manassas, Virginia, July 1861, where he was killed. By that time he had been promoted to Brigadier General, and became the first Confederate brigade commander to die in combat (July 21, 1861). Bartow is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah.

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was Confederate Commander of the South during Sherman's siege of Savannah. He approved of General Hardee's evacuation on December 20, 1864, realizing it was more important to save the troops than try to defend Savannah against Sherman's much larger Army. Alhough he was active throughout the Civil War (Manassas, Shiloh, Corinth), Beauregard is most famous as the general who led the assault on Charleston's Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, which began the Civil War.

Governor of Georgia at time of secession from the Union, January 1861. He came to Savannah January 1, 1861 to order the takeover of Fort Pulaski by Confederate forces.

Fanny Cohen is famous for her diary, meticulously kept during part of Sherman's occupation of Savannah: December 21, 1864 - January 3, 1865. In Chronology, see 12/25/1864.

U.S. commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from July 1863, replacing Admiral Dupont. When part of Sherman's army successfully sieged Fort McAllister, December 13, 1864, ships under Dahlgren's command were ready to resupply the entire army. Dahlgren was inventor of the Dahlgren gun, a muzzle loading cannon -- more accurate and able to fire both shot and shells, unlike previous shell-guns.

President of the Confederacy. He made a wartime appearance in Savannah October 31-Nov 2, 1864. Gave a rallying speech Oct 31 at Christ Church on Reynolds Square, which still stands today.After the war his wife Varina lived in Savannah while he was held prisoner in Fortress Monroe, Virginia.

Not to be confused with the Confederate President, this Jefferson Davis was a Union General. He is infamous for two reasons. First, in 1862 he murdered a superior officer, Maj. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson over some petty argument. Though arrested and imprisoned, he was soon released and the charge was dropped. Second, on December 9, 1864 he stranded some 600 slaves on the march from Atlanta to Savannah. When his section of the army crossed Ebenezer Creek, some 30 miles from Savannah, he had the pontoon bridge pulled up so the Negroes could not cross. Many of them jumped into the creek and drowned, while others were captured by Confederate cavalry. His act so appalled some Union soldiers that an enquiry was held in Savannah in January 1865, by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Ultimately no charges were filed against Davis.

Union Admiral and commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron until July 5, 1863, when Admiral Dahlgren took over. On November 7, 1861 he led successful attack on Port Royal, just 15 miles north of Fort Pulaski, establishing a base from which to man Tybee Island and take over Fort Pulaski. He was also in charge of ironclads that bombarded Fort McAllister during 1862. He came under intense criticism for failure to win Charleston in the famous naval battle of April 7, 1863, though the failure was more technical (difficult to navigate the ironclads) than strategic. Dupont Circle in Washington, DC is named for him.

General Foster was oommander of Department of the South, headquarters South Carolina, during Sherman's march. He aided Sherman in forcing the surrender of Savannah.

Garrison Frazier was chosen as representative of 20 black Savannah leaders who met with General Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton January 12, 1865. Stanton called the meeting to discuss emancipation issues, and from this meeting came General Field Order No. 15, granting 40 acres to each freed black (See Jan 12, 1865). In the minutes of the meeting Frazier is listed as participant No. 9: "Garrison Frazier, aged sixty-seven years, born in Granville County, N. C.; slave until eight years ago, when he bought himself and wife, paying $1,000 in gold and silver; is an ordained minister in the Baptist Church, but, his health failing, has now charge of no congregation; has been in the ministry thirty-five years."

Geary led the first Union troops into Savannah early in the morning of December 21, 1864. During the first weeks of Union occupation he was the city's Military Governor, and helped restore order and important services such as fire and police. After the war he served two terms as Republican governor of Pennsylvania.

Gillmore was Commander of Union forces on Tybee Island that successfully bombarded Fort Pulaski April 10-11, 1862. He is credited with being first to use new rifle canon in battle, and showed that brick forts were vulnerable to destruction from great distances (1-2 miles). On June 11, 1863 Gillmore took charge of the Department of the South, replacing Maj. Gen. David Hunter. He directed the ill-fated siege of Fort Wagner on Morris Island, July 1863 (in which the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment took part).

Green was a wealthy British merchant who lived in Savannah during the Civil War. He has become enshrined in civil war history because, on Sherman's first morning of occupation (December 22, 1864), he invited the General to use his Madison Square mansion as headquarters. During the 19th century it was the most expensive home in the city, and remains open today for touring. Sherman stayed until he left with the bulk of his army January 19, 1865. Green was a confederate sympathizer, not least because his fortune came from the cotton trade; He was in Europe in 1861 when the war began. Making his way back to the U.S. through Canada, he was arrested in Detroit and charged with spying. He was sent to Fort Warren prison in Boston Harbor for 3 months, then released after intervention of the British Consul; he returned to Savannah. Green died while on vacation in Maine in 1881.

Josephine Habersham was member of a prominent Savannah Family that dated to the Colonial period. She is noteworthy for a diary kept during 1863. The diary itself is not online, but portions of it are included in a 1958 book that is on-line: Ebb Tide; As Seen through the Diary of Josephine Clay Habersham, 1983. For diary quotes, see 1863 in this web site.

Commander of approx. 10,000 Confederate Army troops defending Savannah when Sherman's army arrved there December 1864. On December 20-21, 1864 Hardee led his soldiers in famous nighttime escape from Savannah to South Carolina; they marched over hastily constructed pontoon bridges strung across the Savannah River.

Commander of forces that successfully sieged Fort McAllister, December 13, 1862. With the takeover of Ft. McAllister Savannah could not be defended, and without further battle the city surrendered to Union forces December 21, 1862.

A Union General, he led the right wing of Maj. General Sherman's march to the sea, and then later into the Carolinas (the left wing was led by General Henry W. Slocum). Howard lost his right arm in the 1862 Civil War Battle of Fair Oaks. When in Savannah during the 1864-1865 occupation, he was introduced to 4-year-old Julliette "Daisy" Gordon (who as Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts in 1912). She asked what happened to his arm. He replied that the rebels shot it off. She famously replied: "Did they? Well, I shoulnd't wonder if my Papa did it. He has shot lots of Yankees." After the war Howard became the first commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, Howard University, in Washington, D.C., is named after him.

Union Commander of the South, superior to General Gillmore. On April 13, 1862 General Hunter issued Order No. 7, freeing all slaves on Cockspur Island, followed by Order No. 11 on May 9, freeing all slaves in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Both orders were quickly rescinded by President Lincoln, who then issued the Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863, freeing all slaves heldy by Confederate states.

Jones was Mayor of Savannah Oct 1860 - Oct 1861. He wrote The Siege of Savannah In December, 1864, & the Confederate Operations in Georgia & the Third Military District of South Carolina During General Sherman's March from Atlanta to the Sea. Jones was an attorney and ardent Confederate. He moved from Savannah to New York in 1866, and later became an historian of Georgia history and a proponent of the Conferacy's "Lost Cause".

Gazaway Lamar was one of the more colorful characters in Civil War Savannah. He was foremost a businessman and entrepreneur, but at various times he was also a Confederate agent, prisoner of war, and litigant against the Federal Government. Born in Augusta, he and his family moved to Savannah in the early 1830s. He became a succcessful businessman, and before the war had careers in both Savannah and Brooklyn, NY. In New York he founded and became president of the Bank of the Republic. In early 1861 he acted as a secret agent for the Confederacy, and arranged with Georgia Gov. Joseph E. Brown to purchase ten thousand muskets that were shipped to Savannah. In May 1861 he moved back to Savannah to take over all his southern business interests; he became president of the Bank of Commerce and head of the Importing and Exporting Company of Georgia, which was involved in blockade running. He became an advisor to key figures in the Confederate and Georgia governments, including President Jefferson Davis, Secretary of State Judah Benjamin, Secretary of the Treasury Christopher Memminger, and Governor Joseph E. Brown. Soon after Sherman’s army captured Savannah in late December 1864, Lamar, at age sixty-six, took the oath of allegiance to the Union. He was hoping to protect his assets from confiscation. After the war Lamar was imprisoned in the Old Capital Prison in Washington, as a suspect in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Released 3 months later (never charged), he tried to claim his cotton, which was stored at warehouses in Georgia and Florida. However, he was arrested and convicted for stealing government property and trying to bribe a government official. President Johnson commuted his sentence in 1869. Lamar spent the last years of his life pursuing financial compensation for his confiscated cotton, suing anyone involved with taking it, including the federal government, the former secretary of the treasury, and a treasury agent. Six months before his death in 1874, Lamar won the largest judgment ever against the federal government for confiscated property - $580,000.

A West Point graduate (1839) and Harvard-trained lawyer (1842), Lawton became a colonel in the 1st Georgia Volunteers. He commanded the Savannah troops that sailed on the sidewheel steamer Ida, January 3, 1861, and seized Fort Pulaski for the Confederacy. In April that year he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, in charge of forces guarding Georgia's seacoast. Later he was transferred to Virginia and fought in the Shenandoah Valley and other battles.

Commander of the South through March 1862, Lee was in charge of fortifying coastal defenses. In November 1861, meeting with the fort's Commander Charles Olmstead, Lee predicted Fort Pulaski would not be breached with canon. He was back in Virginia when the fort was successfully sieged by Union rifled canon.

A native of Virginia, and from a prominent family (his grandfather served as a general under George Washington), Mercer married a Savannah woman and settled there. He joined the local militia and when war broke out he was commissioned Colonel in the 1st Georgia Infantry. A few months later he was promoted to Bridadier General and served as Commander of the District of Georga. In late 1864 he left Savannah to join the Atlanta Campaign, where he became ill. He returned to Savannah, recovered, and under General Hardee commanded the 10th Battalion, Georgia Infantry, which was in charge of defending the city. When General Hardee evacuated Mercer left as well. After the war he was briefly imprisoned in Fort Pulaski. He moved to Baltimore in 1869, and died in Germany (looking for a cure for his chronic illness) in 1877. Two interesting footnotes regarding Hugh Mercer: 1) Before the war he started construction of an Italianate-style mansion; though forever called the Mercer House, no Mercer ever lived there. In the late 20th century it was bought by artist Jim Williams, and is where Williams allegdly murdered his male lover. The house then became famous after publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Some of the movie was filmed in the house, now known as the Mercer Williams House. It is an historic landmark and open for visitors. 2) Hugh Mercer's great great grandson was Johnny Mercer (1909-1976), who became world famous as a lyricist ("Moon River", "Days of Wine and Roses" and many other songs).

Commander of Confederate forces in Fort Pulaski at time of Union bombardment, April 10-11, 1862. He recognized that fort could not withstand bombardment from rifled canon and that explosion of fort's magazine could destroy all his men. He surrendered fort and on April 13, 1862 was shipped to a northern prison.

Not William Tecumseh Sherman. Thomas W. Sherman, no relation to the more famous Union general, was the Union general in charge of ground forces during the battle of Port Royal, South Carolina. Thomas Sherman's army, and naval forces under command of Flag Officer Samuel F. du Pont, captured Port Royal November 7, 1861. After Port Royal, Thomas Sherman deployed his army to capture Fort Pulaski and tried to interest du Pont in capturing Savannah itself. He got into an argument with du Pont over the feasibility of invading Savannah by the back waterways, which would require naval forces. As result, Thomas Sherman was removed from the campaign in March, 1862. However, plans already in place for the siege of Fort Pulaski proved successful on April 10-11, 1862, when the fort was captured after Union bombardment.

Led 62,000 man army from Atlanta to Savannah, Nov-Dec, 1864, occupied Savannah and wrote famous telegram to President Lincoln offering him the city as a Christmas gift. Following a month-long stay in Savannah, Sherman traveled by boat to Hilton Head, and began his army's march through South and North Carolina. He finally ended the Civil War two weeks after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, when he secured the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston April 26, 1865.

General Slocum commanded one of the two wings of Sherman's 62,000 man army that marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Nov-Dec 1864 (the other was under command of General Oliver O. Howard). He commanded the XX Corps and the XIV Corps, which comprised the left wing in Sherman's March to the Sea. Upon reaching Savannah, Slocum recommended to Sherman that Confederate Gen. William J. Hardee's corps, be cut off from escaping across the Savannah River. This advice was not taken and on Dec 20, 1864, General Hardee's 10000 man army escaped over pontoon bridges into South Carolina. After the city surrendered he and General Howard were the two generals directly in charge of the army.

Secretary of War in Lincoln's cabinet. He met with Sherman in Savannah in January 1865 to discuss Ebenezer Creek incident and the future of emancipated slaves. Out of a January 12, 1865 meeting with 20 black leaders came Field Order No. 15, granting land to blacks along coastal South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Vice President of the Confederacy. In Savannah on March 19, 1861 he gave his famous, extemporaneous "Cornerstone Speech," laying out the governing principles of the Confederacy, and repudiating Declaration of Independence statement that all men are created equal. After the war Stephens was arrested and imprisoned in Boston Harbor for 5 months. He later served in the U.S. House of Representatives, and then in 1882 became governor of Georgia. He died March 4, 1883.

A native Georgian (born near Savannah, in Tattnall County), Josiah Tatnall was a U.S. Naval officer at outbreak of the Civil War. He resigned his commission Feb 21, 1861 and joined the Confederacy. Tattnall commanded confederate ships during the battle of Port Royal, South Carolina (November 7, 1861). He then moved to command naval defenses of Virginia until May 1862, when he returned to Georgia to concentrate on Savannah's shore defenses. When Savannah fell to Sherman's foreces in December 1864, Tattnall became a prisoner of war. He was paroled May 9, 1865. then moved to Nova Scotia for a few years, returning to Savannah in 1869 to serve as Inspector of the Port of Savannah. He was accorded a public funeral and a hero's burial in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.