The Augusta
Constitutionalist gathers from some lady refugees from
Savannah the following about affairs in that unfortunate city:
‘
"
General Sherman is reported as a strikingly ugly man--one of those Mokanna faces, not easily forgotten.
He is a devout member of the Episcopal Church, and did not curse until he was ordered to leave
Savannah on another campaign.
His army is under rigid discipline, and he thinks nothing of degrading officers for contravention of orders and shooting privates for brigandage.
Of course he knows how to wink at a number of things, but when politic he cashiers and shoots.
"The bulk of the army is
Yankee, though Germans, Irish and Indians abound.
They scorn the idea of fighting for the negro, and wax wrathy when called abolitionists.
They express a great admiration for
President Davis, and think the "rebellion" would have collapsed long since had it not been for him. Their hatred of
Lincoln is somewhat cordial.
The 'Stars and Stripes,' however, are everything.
"
Kilpatrick is not much esteemed.
The infantry regard him with aversion, and say that
Wheeler can whip him at any time.
"Little boys in
Savannah are liberally treated to sugar candy.
Some of the ladies of
Savannah baked and sold bread for a support, but
Sherman roughly informed them that they had better save their flour, as when it had gone they need expect nothing of him.
"Of three hundred of our soldiers, captured after the evacuation, all but twenty took the oath.
As soon as they had done so
Sherman sent them to prison at the
North.
"The Yankee authorities declare that they have marked all the rich men who have taken the oath to save their property.
It will not serve their purpose.
"
Sherman occasionally gives receptions for the negroes.
At these levees, the
Yankee demigod stands on a dais and receives the adoration of the darkies, who call him their 'Saviour,' etc."
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