William T. Sherman
With Savannah safely in Union hands, a victorious General William T. Sherman telegrams U.S. President Abraham Lincoln with a simple message: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition and also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”
The capture of the port city is yet another boost for Northern confidence, and another blow for Southern hopes. White Savannahs remaining in the city resign themselves to life, once again, under the United States flag.
Meanwhile, for the huge enslaved black population of Savannah and the surrounding region, Union victory is nothing short of salvation and new beginnings.
As the Union Army approached Savannah leaving behind a path 60 miles wide of desolation and destruction from Atlanta to the sea, it also brought freedom to every enslaved person in that path. Dr. William Pollard, a veterinarian and deacon of the First Bryan Baptist Church, met General Sherman’s Army at the Bay Street Road, identified himself and presented the torch of First Bryan Baptist Church. Dr. Pollard was born in Savannah, July 13, 1824, and lived on Bryan Street opposite the First Bryan Baptist Church.
After the city of Savannah had been captured by the Union Army, General Sherman set up a command post on East Broad Street near the present site of the Pirate’s House Restaurant. Dr. Pollard was given the mission, which he performed, of assembling all persons of color in Chatham County and the surrounding areas to meet in the square opposite the Second Baptist Church to hear the reading and explanation of the Proclamation of Emancipation.
Sources: General Sherman to Abraham Lincoln, December 22, 1864 (link); African American Episcopalians in Savannah, p. 102
