SAVANNAH, December 25,
1864.
This is Christmas Day and I hope truly and really that you and
the little ones may enjoy it, in the full knowledge that I am all safe after
our long March. I am at this moment in an elegant chamber of the house of a
gentleman named Green. This house is elegant and splendidly furnished with
pictures and statuary. My bed room has a bath and dressing room attached which
look out of proportion to my poor baggage. My clothing is good yet and I can
even afford a white shirt. It would amuse you to see the negroes; they flock to
me, old and young, they pray and shout and mix up my name with that of Moses,
and Simon and other scriptural ones as well as “Abram Linkom,” the Great
Messiah of “Dis Jubilee.”
There are many fine families in this city, but when I ask
for old and familiar names, it marks the sad havoc of war. The Goodwins,
Teffts, Cuylers, Habershams, Laws, etc., etc., all gone or in poverty, and yet
the girls remain, bright and haughty and proud as ever. There seems no end but
utter annihilation that will satisfy their hate of the “sneaking Yankee” and “ruthless
invader.” They no longer call my army, “Cowardly Yanks,” but have tried to
arouse the sympathy of the civilized world by stories of the cruel barbarities
of my army. The next step in the progress will be, “for God's sake spare us; we
must surrender.” When that end is reached we begin to see daylight, but
although I have come right through the heart of Georgia they talk as defiantly
as ever. I think Thomas' whipping at Nashville coupled with my March will take
some conceit out of them.
I have no doubt you hear enough about “Sherman” and are sick
of the name, and the interest the public takes in my whereabouts leaves me no subject
to write about. Charley1 and Dayton2 promise to write
details. All I can do is to make hasty scrawls assuring you of my health and eternal
affection.
__________
1 Mrs. Sherman's brother, General Charles Ewing.
2 Colonel L. M. Dayton, aide-de-camp on Sherman's
staff.
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 319-20. A full copy of this letter can
be found in the William
T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives
(UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/19
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