150 Years Ago Today: Savannah, Sherman's Christmas Gift to Lincoln

150 Years Ago Today:  Savannah, Sherman's Christmas Gift to Lincoln

On December 22, 1864  President Abraham Lincoln received an early Christmas present from General William Tecumseh Sherman - the city of Savannah.  He announced this in a now famous telegram which stated:

"I beg to present you, as a Christmas Gift, the city of Savannah, with one-hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."

Sherman's army reached the outskirts of the city on December 20.  Confederate General William Hardee could not hope to hold Savannah, as his small force of 10,000 was outnumbered six to one.  Hardee managed to save his army and their field artillery, but was forced to abandon the many guns in the harbor forts.  One of his final orders was to scuttle and burn the CSS Savannah, a powerful casemate ironclad that had been built to help defend the city and harbor. Union forces entered Savannah on December 21, just as the ironclad was blown up by her crew.  Sherman officially took possession of the city on the following day.

Confederate ironclads play a vital role in the defense of ports in GMT's strategic naval game of the Civil War - Rebel Raiders on the High Seas - at least when those ports are attacked from the sea by the Union Navy.  When city's such as Savannah are taken from the land side, as Sherman did, they are lost.  Although Rebel Raiders is primarily a game of naval strategy, the land war is represented, and the Union player has many cards at his disposal, including Sherman himself, to help replicate that general's famous March to Sea.

150 Years Ago Today: Death of a Rebel Army at Nashville

Oh, my heart is feeling weary
And my head is hanging low
I'm goin' back to Georgy
To find my Uncle Joe.
You may talk about your Beauregard
And sing of Bobby Lee
But the Gallant Hood of Texas
He raised Hell in Tennessee

-These lyrics from the third stanza of Yellow Rose of Texas tell only part of the story of General John Bell Hood and the disasters that befell his ill-fated Army of Tennessee.  When President Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph Johnston (the "Uncle Joe" referred to in the tune) in mid-July 1864,  General Robert E. Lee warned in a telegram that although "Hood is a bold fighter.  I am doubtful as to other qualities necessary." Prophetically, Lee added that  "We may lose Atlanta and the army too. "  On December 16, 1864, the second part of that warning came true outside of Nashville.

Two months after Hood took command, Atlanta did fall as Lee predicted. Hood evacuated the city in September after four bloody, pointless and disastrous attempts to break General William Tecumseh Sherman's ever-tightening ring around that vital urban center.   Rather than fight a delaying action, as Joe Johnston had done earlier in the year, in mid-October Hood struck north and "raised Hell in Tennessee."  Although he won a victory of sorts at Franklin on November 30, it was a hollow and Pyrrhic one.  Sherman, rather than follow Hood whom he said could "twist like a fox," left General George Thomas to deal with the situation in Tennessee while he the struck out for his infamous March to the Sea.  Thomas gathered Union forces at Nashville, and Hood obligingly followed.

For two weeks Hood laid an ineffectual siege around Nashville.  Despite a flood of telegrams from President Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant urging him to attack or be replaced by someone who would, Thomas waited until he was ready, and on December 15 launched his first major attack.  Although bloodied, bested and outnumbered nearly two to one, Hood does not use the cover of night to retreat.  He stubbornly holds his ground.  In the morning Thomas renews his attack, and the Confederate Army of Tennessee disintegrates.   

Hood lost 6,000 men at Franklin, and another 6,000 at Nashville (including 4,500 taken prisoner).  The remaining 25,000 fell back over the barren winter landscape,  abandoning over 150 cannon to the victorious Yankees.  Although elements of it would fight again,  on December 16 Hood's army ceased to be an effective military force.

Ironically, December 16, 1864 would have been the one-year anniversary of the date when Joseph E. Johnston took command of the Army of Tennessee.

Hood's invasion of Tennessee can be recreated by the Southern player in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.  Although primarily a naval strategy game of the Civil War, the land campaigns are replicated on an abstract scale through the use of cards, dice and point-to-point movement.   Hood, Johnston, Sherman and other generals and events relevant to the Western theater are represented by cards  (the one-armed, one-legged Hood is CSN Card 89,  and Sherman is USN Card 50).

Sherman Takes Command

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History  

 -Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

March 18, 1864 – Sherman Takes Command

Historical Event:  Promoted to lieutenant general in early March and ordered East, U.S. Grant officially turned over command of the Military Division of the Mississippi to William Tecumseh Sherman on March 18, 1864.   While Grant made plans for a coordinated offensive in Virginia, Sherman organized his forces for the invasion of Georgia – which would lead to his capture of Atlanta and the subsequent March to the Sea.

Game Connection:  Although Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is primarily a strategic naval game of the Civil War, the land war is represented.  Sherman and Grant, as well as their Confederate opponents, are present (Sherman is USN Card 50).  These generals grant additional dice, re-rolls and other bonuses in land combat.

Sherman’s Fiery Valentine – Burning Meridan, Feb. 14, 1864

Sherman’s Fiery Valentine – Burning Meridan, Feb. 14, 1864

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

February 14, 1864 – Sherman Burns Meriden

Historical Event:  On February 14, 1864 General William Tecumseh Sherman brushed aside the ineffectual and heavily outnumbered Confederate forces of General Leonidas Polk to capture the rail depot at Meridan, Mississippi.  For nearly a week Sherman and his men worked to tear up track, destroy rolling stock, torch warehouses and arsenals and wreck anything of military value.  Sherman was, however, convinced to retire to Vicksburg when a reinforcing column under General William Smith coming out of Memphis was ambushed and sent packing a week later by Rebel cavalry led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Game Connection:  The city of Meridan is depicted on the Rebel Raiders map; while its loss is not as painful to the South as is the capture of major cities and ports by the Union, its loss will cost the South a few victory points. More important, it is the bridge between Vicksburg and Montgomery, and Meridan is thus an important stepping stone for any Northern drive from the Mississippi into the heart of the  Confederacy.  Both Sherman and Forrest are represented in the game, by USN Card 50 and CSN Card 85 – “That Devil Forrest.”