SAVANNAH.
First Visit to Savannah.--Camp Davidson.--The City During
the War.--An Escaped Prisoner.--Recapture and Final Escape.--A
"City of Refuge."--Savannah by Night.--Position of the City.--
Streets and Public Squares.--Forsyth Park.--Monuments.--
Commerce.--View from the Wharves.--Railroads.--Founding of the
City.--Revolutionary History.--Death of Pulaski.--Secession.--
Approach of Sherman.--Investment of the City by Union Troops.--
Recuperation After the War.--Climate.--Colored Population.--
Bonaventure, Thunderbolt, and Other Suburban Resorts.
My first visit to Savannah was made on the twenty-ninth of July, 1864,
when I was brought there as a prisoner of war. I found the city with its
business enterprises in a state of stagnation, and the streets thronged
with soldiers in Confederate uniforms. About four thousand troops were
doing garrison duty in the city, which was thronged with refugees, and
the entire population was suffering from a paralysis of all industrial
enterprises, and from the interruption of its commerce by the Federal
blockade at the mouth of the river. Camp Davidson, where we were
confined, was in the eastern part of the city, near the Marine Hospital,
with Pulaski's Monument in full view, to the westward.
The camp was surrounded by a stockade and deadline, and the principal
amusement and occupation of the prisoners was the digging of a tunnel
which was to conduct them to liberty beyond the second line of
sentinels, without the stockade. But our little camp, like Chicago, had
a cow for an evil genius. This luckless creature broke through the
tunnel, as it was nearing completion, and suddenly ended it and our
hopes together.
The nearest Union forces were at Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah
River, and Savannah was one of the most important military posts of the
Confederate army. Our treatment at Camp Davidson was exceptionally kind
and considerate, and the ladies of the city, in giving suitable
interment to the remains of a Union officer who had died in the camp,
proved themselves to be possessed of generous hearts. Therefore it was
with regret that we received the order to leave Savannah for Charleston.
I next visited Savannah a few months later, when the war was drawing to
a close, after General Sherman and his army had made their successful
entrance into the town. On the sixteenth of December, myself and a
companion found ourselves twenty miles from Savannah, after having been
many weeks fugitives from "Camp Sorghum," the prison-pen at Columbia,
South Carolina. We were on the Savannah River Road, over which
Kilpatrick's Cavalry and the Fourteenth Army Corps had passed only a
week before. Emboldened by our successes and hairbreadth escapes of
three weeks, when we at last felt that deliverance was close at hand, we
pursued our way, only to fall suddenly into the hands of the enemy. Hope
deferred maketh the heart sick. But who shall describe the terrible
sinking of the heart--the worse than sickness--when hope is thus
suddenly crushed and turned to certain despair? Our second captivity was
not, however, of long duration. Death was preferable to bondage under
such masters. Taking our lives in our hands, a second escape was
effected, and on December twenty-third, but two days after Sherman's
occupancy of the city, Savannah proved itself, indeed, a city of
refuge. Union troops welcomed us with open arms, and we were soon
despatched northward.
The traveler who visits Savannah to-day will view it under very
different auspices. The white wings of peace have brooded over it for
more than half a generation, loyalty has taken the place of treason in
the hearts of her people, and prosperity is visible on her streets and
wharves. Let him, if he can, approach the city from the sea, and by
night. Fort Pulaski stands like a sentinel guarding the entrance to the
harbor, the lighthouse upon the point keeping a bright eye out to
seaward. As he glides up the river, which winds in countless lagoons
around low sea islands covered with salt marshes, at last he will see in
the distance the lights of the city set on a hill, and of the shipping
at her feet. A distant city is always beautiful at night, though it may
be hideous by daylight. Night veils all its ugliness in charitable
shadows; it reveals hitherto unseen beauties of outline, crowns it with
a tiara of sparkling gems, and enwraps the whole scene in an air of
romance and mystery which is charming to the person of poetic nature.
But whether seen by night or day, Savannah is indeed a beautiful city,
probably the most beautiful in all the Southern States.
The Savannah River winds around Hutchinson Island, and the city is built
in the form of an elongated crescent, about three miles in length, on
its southern shore. It is on a bluff about forty feet above the stream,
this bluff being about a mile wide at its eastern end, and broadening as
it extends westward. Surrounding it are the low lands occupied by market
gardens, for Savannah is a great place for market gardeners, and helps
to supply the northern market in early spring.
The streets of Savannah are laid out east and west, nearly parallel to
the river, with others crossing them at right angles, north and south.
They are wide, and everywhere shaded with trees, many of the latter
being live oaks, most magnificent specimens of which are found in the
city. Orange trees also abound, with their fragrant blossoms and golden
fruit, stately palmettoes, magnolias and oleander, rich in bloom, bays
and cape myrtles.
The streets running north and south are of very nearly uniform width,
every alternate street passing on either side of a public square, which
is bounded on the north and south by narrow streets running east and
west, and intersected in the centre by a wide street taking the same
direction. These public squares, twenty-four in number, and containing
from one and a half to three acres, are a marked feature of the city.
They are placed at regular intervals, as already described, are
handsomely inclosed, laid out with walks, shaded with evergreen and
ornamental trees, and in the spring and summer months are green with
grass. In a number of these are monuments, while others contain
fountains or statuary. These squares or plazas are surrounded with fine
residences, each having its own little yard, beautiful with flowers,
vines, shrubbery and trees. In these premises roses thrive and bloom
with a luxuriance unknown in the North, and the stately Camelia
Japonica, the empress among flowers, grows here to a height of twelve or
fifteen feet, and blossoms in midwinter. Savannah, the most beautiful
city of the South, if not in the United States, is more like the wealthy
suburb of some large city, than like a city itself. It is embowered in
trees, which are green the whole year around; and shares with Cleveland,
its northern rival in beauty, the _soubriquet_ of the "Forest City."
Forsyth Park, originally laid out in the southern suburb of the city, is
now the centre of a populous quarter, abounding in handsome edifices.
Many of the original trees, the beautiful southern pines, are left
standing in this park, and other trees and shrubbery added. Sphynxes
guard the Bull street entrance, and in the centre of the old park, which
was ten acres in extent, is a handsome fountain, modeled after that in
the Place de la Concorde, in Paris. This fountain is surrounded by a
profusion of flowers, while shelled walks furnish pathways through the
park. It has recently been increased in dimensions to thirty acres; in
the centre of the new or western portion stands a stately monument in
honor of the Confederate dead.
Pulaski Monument stands in Monterey Square, the first plaza to the
northward of Forsyth Park. The steps of the monument are of granite, and
the shaft of fine white marble, fifty-five feet high, surmounted by a
statue of Liberty holding the national banner. This monument covers the
spot where, in 1779, Count Pulaski fell, during an attack upon the city,
while it was occupied by the British. In Johnson Square, the first
square south of the river intersected by Bull street, is a fine
Druidical pile, erected to the memory of General Greene and Count
Pulaski. The corner-stone of this obelisk was laid in 1825, by
Lafayette, during his visit to America.
Savannah was founded in 1733, by General James Oglethorpe, whose plan
has been followed in its subsequent erection. Upon each of the
twenty-four squares were originally left four large lots, known as
"trust lots," two on the east and two on the west. We are told by Mr.
Francis Moore, who wrote in 1736, that "the use of this is, in case a
war should happen, the villages without may have places in town to bring
their cattle and families into for refuge; and for that purpose there is
a square left in every ward, big enough for the outwards to encamp in."
These lots are now occupied by handsome churches, conspicuous public
buildings, and palatial private residences, thus securing to all the
squares a uniform elegance which they might otherwise have lacked.
Bay street is the great commercial street of the city. It is an
esplanade, two hundred feet wide, upon the brow of the cliff overlooking
the river. Its southern side is lined with handsome stores and offices.
At the corner of Bay and Bull streets is the Custom House, with the Post
Office in the basement. Its northern side is occupied by the upper
stories of warehouses, which are built at the foot of the steep cliff
fronting the river. These upper stories are connected with the bluff by
means of wooden platforms, which form a sort of sidewalk, spanning a
narrow and steep roadway, which leads at intervals, by a series of
turns, down to the wharves below. Long flights of steps accommodate
pedestrians in the same descent. The warehouses just spoken of are four
or five stories high on their river fronts, and but one or two on the
Bay.
One should walk along the quay below the city to gain a true idea of the
extent of its commerce. Here, in close proximity to the wharves, are
located the cotton presses and rice mills. Here everything is dirty and
dismal, evidently speaking of better days. The beauty of the city is all
above. The buildings are some of them substantially built of brick, but
begin to show the ravages of time. There is an old archway, which once
had pretensions of its own, but the wall has fallen away, and it is now
an entrance to nowhere. Yet in spite of this general dilapidation, there
is all the bustle and activity of a full commercial life. The wharves
are piled with cotton bales, which have found a temporary landing here,
awaiting shipment to the North, or perhaps across the sea. For Savannah
is the second cotton port in the United States. But cotton is not its
only export. It is the great shipping depot for Southern produce bound
for Northern markets. Some sheds are filled with barrels of rosin, while
great quantities of rosin litter the ground. From others turpentine in
great quantities is shipped to various ports. The lumber trade of the
city is immense, the pine forests of Georgia furnishing an apparently
inexhaustible supply. The city is also in the centre of the rice-growing
region, and sends its rice to feed the North. Steamships from all the
Atlantic ports lie along its wharves, while those of foreign nations are
by no means scarce. Vessels of too large a draft to lie alongside the
wharves discharge and load their freight three miles below the city.
The view from the river front is over the river itself, filled with
craft of all sorts, from the tiny ferry boat up to the immense ocean
steamer, across to Hutchinson's Island and the Carolina shore. The
island, which is two miles long by one wide, has upon it numerous lumber
yards and a large dry dock. Rice was formerly cultivated upon it, but is
now forbidden by law, because of its unhealthfulness. The river is about
seven hundred and twenty feet wide in front of the city, with a depth of
water at the wharves varying from thirteen to twenty-one feet. The
portion of South Carolina visible is low and flat, dotted here and there
with palmetto trees. There is little of the picturesque about this
river view except the busy life, which keeps in constant motion.
Savannah has extensive railroad connection with all parts of the United
States. She has direct communication by rail with Vicksburg on the
Mississippi. She also offers an outlet, by means of railroads, for the
products of Georgia, Florida, and portions of Alabama and Tennessee. She
has unbroken railroad connection with Memphis, Mobile, Cincinnati,
Louisville, and the principal commercial cities of the West and North.
Her water communication is established with all the great Northern and
Southern seaboard cities. Her harbor is one of the best and safest on
the South Atlantic coast, and she is the natural eastern terminus of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, being almost on the same parallel of latitude
with San Diego, its western terminus.
The corporate limits of Savannah extend backward from the river about
one and one-half miles, and embrace a total area of three and one-half
square miles, but additions are fast being made to the southward, which
will, in time, greatly extend its area, and add to the population,
which, in 1880, was 30,681.
Savannah's history goes back to the early days of the colonies. Its site
marks the first settlement in Georgia. General Oglethorpe, with a
hundred and fourteen men, women and children, having landed at
Charleston, in January, 1733, sailed from that port with a plentiful
supply of provisions and a small body of troops for their protection,
and landed on Yamacraw Bluff, on the Savannah River, eighteen miles from
its mouth. On the bluff General Oglethorpe laid out a town and called it
Savannah, and by the ninth of February the colony commenced the erection
of buildings. The colony survived various haps and mishaps until 1776,
when, in the War of the Revolution, the British attacked the city, but
were repulsed. On December twenty-ninth, 1778, they made a second
attack, surprised the American forces, who attempted to fly, but were
mostly killed or captured. On the morning of October fourth, 1779, the
American and French troops made a direct assault upon Savannah,
attempting to take it from the British, but were obliged to retire with
heavy loss. Count Pulaski, a Polish nobleman, who had been expatriated
for participating in the carrying off of King Stanislaus from his
capital, was wounded in this battle, and soon afterwards died. Pulaski
Monument, as already stated, was erected on the spot where he fell.
Savannah received its city charter in 1788. In 1850 it had a little more
than fifteen thousand inhabitants, and in 1860, 22,292. When Secession
cast its shadow upon the sunny South, it fell like a pall upon Savannah,
no less than upon the other Southern cities. All her business was
suspended, and grass grew in her streets. On the northeast corner of
Bull and Broughton streets stands the building known as Masonic Hall,
where, on January twenty-first, 1861, the Ordinance of Secession was
passed. On the sixteenth of March the State Convention assembled in
Savannah, adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America,
Georgia being the second State to adopt this Constitution without
submitting it to the people. The mouth of the river was blockaded by
United States gunboats, and all commerce prevented. On April fifteenth,
1862, Fort Pulaski was captured by the Federal troops, and great
excitement prevailed in the city. Women and children left their homes,
and property and furniture were sent into the interior.
During the following years a number of unsuccessful attempts were made
by the Union naval forces to capture the city. In December, 1864,
Sherman was making his famous march to the sea, and was steadily drawing
nearer the city, while southern chivalry fled before him, and the now
emancipated slaves gathered and rolled in his rear like a sable cloud.
On the twentieth, heavy siege guns were put in position by his forces
between Kingsbridge and the city; and General Hardee, suddenly awakened
to a sense of the danger which menaced them, set his troops hurriedly to
work to destroy the navy yard and government property; while the
ironclads, the "Savannah" and "Georgia," were making a furious fire on
the Federal left, the garrison, under cover of darkness and confusion,
were being transported on the first stage of their journey to
Charleston. Before leaving, they blew up the iron clads and the
fortifications below the city. On the twenty-first, General Sherman
received a formal surrender from the municipal authorities. On the
following day, the twenty-second, he sent a dispatch to the President,
presenting him, "as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah." On December
twenty-eighth, 1864, Masonic Hall, already historical, witnessed a
gathering of loyal citizens celebrating the triumph of the Union army.
Sherman, when he entered the city, encamped his forces on the still
vacant "trust lots." This triumphant conclusion of Sherman's march from
Atlanta broke the backbone of the Confederacy, and was the prelude to
the downfall of Richmond and the surrender of Lee's army.
Prosperity eventually followed in the wake of peace. The blockade
lifted, the deserted wharves were soon filled with the shipping of all
nations. Her silent and empty streets grew noisy and populous with the
rush of business, and Savannah is now one of the most prosperous of our
Southern cities. Her architecture is not striking for either its beauty
or its grandeur; nevertheless she has many fine public and private
buildings. The City Exchange is one of the former, and it also possesses
a historical interest, General Sherman having reviewed his troops in
front of it in his investment of the city. From its tower the best view
of the city and neighborhood may be obtained. The Court House, the
United States and Police Barracks, Artillery Armory, Jail, Chatham
Academy and St. Andrews' Hall, are all conspicuous buildings. The
Georgia Historical Society has a large and beautiful hall, with a fine
library and interesting relics. St. John's and Christ's Episcopal
churches, the Independent Presbyterian Church, and the Roman Catholic
Cathedral, are all striking edifices. Trinity Church, in Johnson Square,
is near the spot where John Wesley delivered his famous sermons. Wesley
visited Savannah in its early days, having been invited thither by
Oglethorpe. At Bethesda, about ten miles from the city, where the Union
Farm School is now located, was the site of the Orphan House established
in 1740 by Whitefield, Wesley's contemporary and companion.
The benevolent, literary and educational institutions of Savannah are
numerous and well sustained, some of them being among the oldest in the
country. The Union Society, for the support of orphan boys, and the
Female Society, for orphan girls, were founded in 1750.
Savannah is situated just above the 32d parallel of latitude, and
possesses a mean temperature of 66 deg. Fahr. Being within the influence of
the Gulf Stream it enjoys all the mildness of the tropics in winter,
while the summers are less oppressive than at New York or Washington. It
is a favorite resort for northern invalids, being comparatively free
from malarious fevers and pulmonary diseases.
Colored people abound in Savannah, constituting about three-eighths of
the entire population. They do most of the menial work of the city,
being laborers, waiters in the hotels and public houses, and stevedores
upon the wharves. It is astonishing to see the number of colored men it
takes to load and set afloat a steamship; and one of the last sights
which meets the eye of the traveler and lingers in his memory, as he
leaves the city by means of the river, is the long row of upturned black
faces, most of them beaming with good humor and jollity, on the wharf,
as the vessel casts off her lines and turns her head down stream.
Savannah possesses certain famous suburban attractions, without seeing
which the traveler can scarcely say he has seen the city. In a bend of
the Warsaw River, a short distance from its junction with the Savannah,
and about four miles from the city, is the famous Bonaventure Cemetery.
A hundred years ago this was the country seat of a wealthy English
gentleman, who, upon the marriage of his daughter, made her a wedding
present of the estate. The grounds were laid out in wide avenues, and
shaded by live oaks, and the initials of the young bride and her husband
were outlined with trees. In course of time the property was converted
into a cemetery, and for many years has been devoted to that purpose.
It is filled with monuments to the dead, some of them bearing historic
names. Meantime the live oaks have grown to enormous dimensions, their
gigantic branches meeting and interlacing overhead, forming immense
arches, like those of the gothic aisles of some great cathedral, under
and through which are visible bright vistas of the river and the sea
islands lying beyond. The branches are fringed with pendants of the gray
Spanish moss, yards in length, which sway softly in the breeze, and by
their sombre color add to the solemnity of the scene. The steamers on
the Sea Island route to Fernandina, Florida, pass Bonaventure, and
afford glimpses of white monuments through the avenues of trees.
Bonaventure is a favorite drive from the city, and is also reached by
the horse cars.
Thunderbolt, so named, tradition tells us, because a thunderbolt once
fell there, is a short distance from Bonaventure, down the Warsaw River,
and is a popular drive and summer resort. A spring of water flows from
the spot where the lightning is supposed to have entered the ground.
Jasper's Spring is two and one-half miles west of the city, and is the
scene of the exploit of Sergeant Jasper, who at the time of the
Revolution succeeded, with only one companion, in releasing a party of
American prisoners from a British guard of eight men. Another
fashionable drive is to White Bluff, ten miles distant from the city.
The latter, with Beaulieu, Montgomery and the Isle of Hope, furnish salt
water bathing and delightful sea breezes for the summer visitors.
There is but one line of horse cars in the city, running on South Broad
street, and then out the Thunderbolt road to Thunderbolt, Bonaventure,
and the other suburban resorts. This company, we are told, has been so
reckless in regard to the limitations of its charter, that the municipal
government refuses to charter a second road. If our Northern cities were
as scrupulous, we wonder where their many horse railroads would be!
Since the war Northern men and Northern capital have helped to build up
the various interests of Savannah. Planing mills, foundries, flouring
and grist mills, have been established, furnishing employment to a
considerable number of workingmen. Old channels of commerce have been
extended, and new ones opened; and the natural advantage of her
position, added to the public spirit which her citizens manifest in the
accomplishment of great enterprises of internal improvement, give a
guarantee of increased prosperity in the future.