Joni Con
MAKING THE ROUNDS IN SAVANNAH, #2.
Here we see Joni seemingly strolling down a cobblestone roadway as she approaches her car with keys in her hand. This photo was also taken by a somewhat older gentleman who saw Joni pose for a photo-timer photo and volunteered to take a couple of photos for Joni with her camera. Joni was acknowledging with a smile a couple of young guys who were calling out to her while she was posing for the photos.
The illuminated clock face on a tower in the background is actually part of Savannah's City Hall. Savannah is, of course, a great tourist venue because so many of its buildings and statues date back to the Antebellum period prior to the Civil War and beyond, including its famous public squares.
After General Sherman burned the City of Atlanta to the ground in the fall of 1864, he set out on his infamous 300 mile "March to the Sea" with Savannah as his next target. Sherman's army marched deep into and through the hostile South without a supply line for his army of approximately 65,000 troops against what turned out to be only token opposition. The army lived off the land during its march, foraging (another term for stealing) liberally from Confederate citizens, while destroying railroads, factories, and other important infra structures along the way, all of which accelerated the South's inevitable downfall. It was Sherman's intent to lay siege and destroy Savannah in the same manner as he had done in Atlanta. Once his army had surrounded the city and his artillery was in place on the outskirts of Savannah, he sent word to the Confederate commander of the garrison in Savannah, demanding his and its surrender so as to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, or else he would reduce the city to ashes. The Confederate commander never responded to Sherman's ultimatum, but instead took his full garrison of approximately 2,000 troops and escaped into South Carolina across the Savannah River to fight another day, but leaving the City of Savannah defenseless and at the mercy of Sherman.
It was at this time with Christmas only days away that the Mayor of Savannah, a guy by the name of Arnold, saved the City of Savannah for posterity by riding out to Sherman's headquarters and advising him that the entire Confederate garrison had fled the city, and he offered (begged) Sherman to allow him to surrender the city on the condition that Sherman not destroy it, He further guaranteed Sherman that there would be no acts of resistance by the citizens of Savannah against Sherman's army, Sherman accepted the Mayor's terms of surrender and wasted no time in occupying the city for approximately a month, during which his army rested up from its march to the sea and then ramped up for its subsequent invasion of the Carolinas and a planned linkup with General Grant's Army of the Potomac which was laying siege to General Lee's army at Petersburg in Virginia. Sherman famously telegraphed President Lincoln that he was presenting the City of Savannah to him as a Christmas present. Lincoln and Grant as well were only too happy to hear that news as Savannah was still a strategic port for blockade runners to smuggle supplies into the Confederacy and to export cotton abroad as one of the Confederacy's last life lines. Additionally, Lincoln and Grant were relieved to hear that Sherman's army had reached Savannah relatively unscathed, because Sherman and his army had been incommunicado with Lincoln and Grant during the march.
MAKING THE ROUNDS IN SAVANNAH, #2.
Here we see Joni seemingly strolling down a cobblestone roadway as she approaches her car with keys in her hand. This photo was also taken by a somewhat older gentleman who saw Joni pose for a photo-timer photo and volunteered to take a couple of photos for Joni with her camera. Joni was acknowledging with a smile a couple of young guys who were calling out to her while she was posing for the photos.
The illuminated clock face on a tower in the background is actually part of Savannah's City Hall. Savannah is, of course, a great tourist venue because so many of its buildings and statues date back to the Antebellum period prior to the Civil War and beyond, including its famous public squares.
After General Sherman burned the City of Atlanta to the ground in the fall of 1864, he set out on his infamous 300 mile "March to the Sea" with Savannah as his next target. Sherman's army marched deep into and through the hostile South without a supply line for his army of approximately 65,000 troops against what turned out to be only token opposition. The army lived off the land during its march, foraging (another term for stealing) liberally from Confederate citizens, while destroying railroads, factories, and other important infra structures along the way, all of which accelerated the South's inevitable downfall. It was Sherman's intent to lay siege and destroy Savannah in the same manner as he had done in Atlanta. Once his army had surrounded the city and his artillery was in place on the outskirts of Savannah, he sent word to the Confederate commander of the garrison in Savannah, demanding his and its surrender so as to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, or else he would reduce the city to ashes. The Confederate commander never responded to Sherman's ultimatum, but instead took his full garrison of approximately 2,000 troops and escaped into South Carolina across the Savannah River to fight another day, but leaving the City of Savannah defenseless and at the mercy of Sherman.
It was at this time with Christmas only days away that the Mayor of Savannah, a guy by the name of Arnold, saved the City of Savannah for posterity by riding out to Sherman's headquarters and advising him that the entire Confederate garrison had fled the city, and he offered (begged) Sherman to allow him to surrender the city on the condition that Sherman not destroy it, He further guaranteed Sherman that there would be no acts of resistance by the citizens of Savannah against Sherman's army, Sherman accepted the Mayor's terms of surrender and wasted no time in occupying the city for approximately a month, during which his army rested up from its march to the sea and then ramped up for its subsequent invasion of the Carolinas and a planned linkup with General Grant's Army of the Potomac which was laying siege to General Lee's army at Petersburg in Virginia. Sherman famously telegraphed President Lincoln that he was presenting the City of Savannah to him as a Christmas present. Lincoln and Grant as well were only too happy to hear that news as Savannah was still a strategic port for blockade runners to smuggle supplies into the Confederacy and to export cotton abroad as one of the Confederacy's last life lines. Additionally, Lincoln and Grant were relieved to hear that Sherman's army had reached Savannah relatively unscathed, because Sherman and his army had been incommunicado with Lincoln and Grant during the march.