the invaders just kept coming
A Democrat publication looked at the undoubted brilliance of General Sherman’s campaign through Georgia – and found the Lincoln administration wanting. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in December 1864:
The Capture of Savannah.
The War Department received dispatches from Gen. Sherman on the 25th inst., announcing the occupation of Savannah and the capture of 150 guns, 25,000 bales of cotton and plenty of ammunition. The city was occupied by our army on the 21st., the rebel Gen. Hardee with his infantry and artillery making their escape the night before, after blowing up the iron-clads and burning the Navy Yard.
The enemy, it seems, have made a very poor campaign against Sherman, and if Hardee had a force of 12,000 behind the works at Savannah, as it is estimated, it was a singular proceeding on his part to evacuate the city, without an effort to defend it. That he left 25,000 bales of cotton to fall into our hands is a very improbable story.
new base on the Atlantic
Gen. Sherman’s campaign has been a very brilliant one, and the occupation of Savannah furnishes him a new base upon the Atlantic coast, from which he can draw supplies, in his future movements against the enemy. The mere taking of Savannah is of no particular consequence, except in its prestige or moral effect. The success of the rebel cause by no means depends on the possession of cities, nor are they its principal strength. Until the rebel armies are wholly destroyed we will look in vain for peace under the policy of the present administration. Until our rulers are imbued with a wise statesmanship in the conduct of the war, all our victories will be in vain.
Actually, after he received news of the Union success at Antietam, President Lincoln did urge the Democrats’ beloved General McClellan to “Destroy the rebel army if possible.”
