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00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.

This Week in the Civil War - #979

  William Tecumseh Sherman’s army could virtually smell the sea.  The changing terrain and vegetation as they neared Savannah suggested that they were fast approaching their goal.  After skirmishing with William Hardee’s Confederates at Jenks’ Bridge on the Ogeechee River and at Buck Creek and Cypress Swamp near Sister’s Ferry, Georgia, on Friday, December 9, 1864 Sherman’s army drove Confederate skirmishers from the Ogeechee Canal and Monteith Swamp.  With Federal troops to the south of the city almost in sight of the Atlantic Ocean, Sherman cautiously approached Savannah, although Hardee’s Confederate defenders were strongly entrenched and had flooded the surrounding, low lying fields, leaving only five narrow causeways as approaches to the city. Sherman was undeterred, knowing the psychological impact that Savannah’s fall would have on the war’s outcome.