Who Really Saved Savannah?: The Surprising Paradox

Savannah is one of the ten most sought travel destinations here and abroad. Her Southern charm, her well-preserved nineteenth-century architecture, her beautiful squares and brilliant city plan, her mystique, her attraction for Hollywood filming sites, and her casual—yes, slow—pace brings millions of tourists to visit every year. In 2013, thirteen million tourists spent over $2 billion in Savannah. Tourism grows in leaps every year. One of the closest calls to total disaster happened in December of 1864 with the arrival of sixty-two thousand Union troops and Gen. Wm T. Sherman, “Uncle Billy” as his boys called him. This fifty-three-day heart-pounding, nail-biting, hair-raising horror story of her onion-skin-thin bare survival centers on the central question: who saved Savannah, really?