When a Richmond paper heard the news about the fall of Savannah, it spun it positive – unlike American forces in Charleston during the Revolutionary War, General Hardee’s army escaped. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch December 29, 1864:
Thursday morning…December 29, 1864.
The capture of Savannah has not yielded the Yankees all the fruits they anticipate from that enterprise. They believed that Hardee would shut himself up in that city, with fifteen thousand men, and wait the event of a siege, which could not be doubtful since they have the command of the sea. They even anticipated the capture of Beauregard, with his forces; and their journals made themselves quite merry on the occasion.–They expected, in a word, another Vicksburg and Port Hudson affair at Savannah. But they have been disappointed. Hardee did not remain to be captured. He carried off all his men, all his magazines, and all his munitions of war. He left only his siege guns, which were too heavy to be transported, and which were, no doubt, rendered unfit for service. Every man, well or sick, was transported beyond the reach of Sherman. The army has been saved, and will add to our troops in the field a force of which they are in much need.–In the Revolutionary war, the American general — Lincoln — committed the folly of shutting himself up in Charleston with the entire army destined to defend the South. The consequences might have been foreseen. The enemy, having the entire command of the sea, shut up the harbor of Charleston, and landing forces at Beaufort, invested it by land. The city not only fell, but it carried the army along with it. Every man was captured, and the Southern States left entirely without an army. It was then that the spirit of the people rose to supply the place of a regular army. It was then that Marion, Sumpter and Clarke first began to teach the British that though they had conquered Savannah and Charleston, they had not conquered South Carolina and Georgia. The dispatch from Sir Henry Clinton to Lord George Germania, the British Secretary of War, announcing that South Carolina was completely subdued, had hardly been published in the Gazette, when news arrived that these bold partizans had already rekindled the war. Cornwallis, like Sherman, commenced his march northward. He overthrew the army of Gates at Camden, and, for awhile, put an end to all regular opposition. But Marion and Sumpter were still at work, and in less than two months after Camden, came King’s Mountain; and in three months more, the defeat of Tarlton at the Cowpens by Morgan’s regulars and militia. We are more fortunate than were our forefathers. They lost Charleston, and with it a whole army. We have simply lost Savannah, which had been blockaded and rendered useless for two years. The army is safe, intact, and existing, to serve as a nucleus around which reinforcements may rally.
The column which Sherman has sent to the South is supposed to have gone in search of the prisoners, which, thus far, he has failed to capture. We do not think he is likely to find them. With his main force he is already moving north; his object being, no doubt, to pass through South and North Carolina, and, as far as he can, destroy all the communications between those regions and General Lee’s army. It appears to be thought by many that the winter, and the bad weather, will impede his advance to unite with Grant. We are not of that opinion — at least, we place no great faith in such allies as wind and weather. They have proved treacherous too often since the commencement of this war. Besides, we read that in the campaign of JanuaryFebruary, 1781, between Cornwallis and Green — over this same ground — the rains and the high water did, by no means, put an end to military evolutions. Cornwallis pursued Green, and Green retired before him with the most unremitting vigilance, and the most untiring activity, although it was raining incessantly nearly the whole time, and the waters were everywhere up, for several weeks, from the borders of South Carolina, into Virginia. We rather hope that military means will be found to hold Sherman in check, and to protect the country and delay his advance as much as possible.
