General Sherman's Christmas: Savannah, 1864

Written by Stanley Weintraub

Narrated by Ed Sala

General Sherman's Christmas opens on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, 1864, one month before Christmas. Sherman was relentlessly pushing his troops across Georgia, reaching Savannah days before Christmas. His methodical encroachment of the city from all sides eventually convinced Confederate general W. J. Hardee to slip away in darkness across an improvised causeway toward South Carolina to the north. In freezing rain and terrifying fog, soldiers with their equipment crossed an improvised pontoon bridge across the mile-wide Savannah River.

Three days before Christmas, the mayor, Richard Arnold, surrendered the city, populated now mostly by women and children and slaves who had not fled. Then General Sherman telegraphed to Abraham Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah." The end of the long war was in sight.

The siege of Savannah took place as its inhabitants were preparing for Christmas, and Stanley Weintraub explores what remained of the holiday in the South by the last full year of the war. On Christmas Eve, the 33rd Massachusetts Regiment band serenaded Sherman and "a constant stream" of freed slaves filed by the house he had taken over for his headquarters. That he had come at Christmas was immensely symbolic to them.

Including the voices of soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict, General Sherman's Christmas is the perfect holiday present for the history buff.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 14, 2009
• ISBN: 9781400183913

Stanley Weintraub

Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University and the author of notable histories and biographies including 11 Days in December, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, MacArthur's War, Long Day's Journey into War, and A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War. He lives in Newark, Delaware.

Reviews for General Sherman's Christmas

[tharveyme · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book adds more color and human interest to the famous March to the Sea than military detail. At first I was skeptical of Weintraub's casual style and approach to detail; but as the book moves through the March day by day until Sherman and his Army finally celebrate Christmas in Savannah, he skillfully portrays the culture of the Union Army, the depressed and declining South, and the hesitant and cautious liberated slaves. Music and lyrics of songs are used by the author to explore the feelings of both sides of the war.