Proceedings of a Public Meeting, Held in the Council Chamber, Savannah, 1865 January 25

This collection contains four letters and one other document regarding a mission organized by citizens of Boston to deliver relief supplies to the occupied city of Savannah, Georgia, in January 1865. The items include a five-page copy of a letter sent to R. D. Arnold, mayor of Savannah, on behalf of thirty Boston citizens, explaining the relationship between the two “Sister cities on the Atlantic.” There is also a two-page copy of a letter from committee members William Gray, E. R. Mudge, John A. Blanchard, Nathan Crowell, and William Glidden to Major General W. T. Sherman, explaining that the supplies will be transported to Savannah by “agents” Harrison O. Briggs, Julian Allen, and William H. Baldwin. This letter assures Sherman that the envoys “will, of course, be in all respects subject to your direction.” The collection also contains a three-page letter appointing Briggs, Allen, and Baldwin to do their task; a three-page typed account of a public meeting in Savannah discussing the city’s gratitude to “the citizens of New York and Boston,” signed by mayor Arnold and inscribed to Baldwin; and a two-page letter from Arnold to Baldwin, sent in February 1865, reflecting on the changes that have come about in the South, such as economic collapse, damaged railroads, and “the sudden dissolution of the relations of Master and Servant.”