When did union troops join with the Savannah the civil war?

Savannah was one of the chief cities of secessionist Georgia, and a favourite port of the blockade-runners.

Sherman's March to the Sea (Union invasion of Georgia) ended at Savannah, where he expected a battle with the small Confederate army under General Hardee. But that army escaped across the river into South Carolina, where Sherman would presently follow him. Meanwhile, noting that it was December 24th, he was able to send a joke-telegram to Lincoln, offering him the city of Savannah as a Christmas present.

Sherman's punitive raids in Georgia had been highly destructive of property, and he might have burned down Savannah as well, just to drive home the point. Perhaps he felt the point had been made by that time, which it certainly had. But there is a lingering belief that he spared the city because he had once loved a girl from there

• a touching thought, as we celebrate the survival of this most

gracious and harmonious of American cities.