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opposite, and is very urgent to pass one of his corps over to that shore. * * * * He [Hood] can draw nothing from South Carolina, save from a small corner down in the south-east, and that by a disused wagon road.
I could easily get possession of this, but hardly deem it worth the risk of making a detachment, which would be in danger by its isolation from the main army.’ * * * *
In demanding the surrender of the city, on the 17th, he wrote
Hardee:
‘Also, I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied, and I am, therefore, justified in demanding the surrender of the city of Savannah and its dependent forts; and shall wait a reasonable time for your answer before opening with heavy ordnance.’
The same day
Hardee, in refusing to surrender, thus gave him notice that he had not invested the city:
‘Your statement that you have, for some days, held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison can be supplied, is incorrect.
I am in free and constant communication with my department.’
The effect of this last communication
General Sherman thus relates (page 216):
‘On the 18th of December, at my camp by the side of the plank road, eight miles back of Savannah, I received General Hardee's letter declining to surrender, when nothing remained but to assault.
The ground was difficult, and as all former assaults had proved so bloody, I concluded to make one more effort to completely surround Savannah on all sides, so as further to excite Hardee's fears, and, in case of success, to capture the whole of his army.
We had already completely invested the place on the north, west, and south; but there remained to the enemy, on the east, the use of the old dike or plank road leading into South Carolina, and I knew that Hardee would have a pontoon bridge across the river.’
On the same day, December 18, he wrote
General Grant in reference to this incredulousness of
Hardee, as follows:
‘In relation to Savannah, you will remark that General Hardee refers to his still being in communication with his department.
This language he thought would deceive me, but I am confirmed in the belief that the route to which he refers (the Union plank road on the South Carolina shore) is ’
