Savannah Colloquy and Field Order No. 15
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The Countryman newspaper debates the intentions of General Sherman and what the orders mean for both slavery and the economy.
Courtesy of the Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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Located in Madison Square at Harris and Bull Streets in Savannah, this marker was erected for the Civil War's 150th commemoration by the Georgia Historical Society.
Courtesy of Digital Library of Georgia, Georgia Historical Markers.
After a meeting between Union officials and twenty African American ministers of Savannah, General Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 on January 16, 1865. In addition to redistributing land from rice plantations, mules that were no longer being used were also offered to African Americans. Area planters contested the order’s legality, however, and U.S. president Andrew Johnson later reversed the order, requiring Black farmers to return the land to white plantation owners and foreclosing the possibility of land reform.