Rebels, Saints,
Rebels,
Saints,
Savannah’s Rich History
and Colorful Personalities
By Timothy Daiss
PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
Gretna 2002
Copyright © 2002
By Timothy Daiss
All rights reserved
The word “Pelican” and the depiction of a pelican are trademarks
of Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., and are registered
in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Daiss, Timothy.
Rebels, saints, and sinners : Savannah’s rich history and colorful
personalities / Timothy Daiss.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-58980-049-4 (alk. paper)
1. Savannah (Ga.)—History—Annecdotes. 2. Savannah
(Ga.)—Biography—Anecdotes. I. Title.
F294.S2 D35 2002
975’8’724—dc21
2002004289
The article “Edward C. Anderson: Mayor Becomes Arms Dealer,”
pp. 192-196, is reprinted with the permission of Savannah Magazine.
Printed in the United States of America
Published by Pelican Publishing Company
1000 Burmaster Street, Gretna, Louisiana 70053
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Part One: The Events
The Sinking of the Pulaski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Winged Death: Savannah’s Yellow Fever Epidemics. . . . . . . . 16
Sherman in Savannah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Politics and Corruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Mighty 8th Air Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s Savannah Days
and the Black Sox Scandal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Nixon Visits Savannah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Controversial Story of the Slave Ship Wanderer . . . . . . . 41
Bobby Jones Plays Savannah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Savannah Hosts International Road Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Tracing Pulaski’s Footsteps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The Savannah Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Odyssey of Savannah’s Confederate Monument . . . . . . . 59
Corruption Savannah Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Half Rubber: The Quintessential Savannah Game . . . . . . . . . 73
West Broad Street Jazz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Fire! How Savannah Burned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The Rise and Fall of the Old DeSoto Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
James Moore Wayne:
Savannah’s First U.S. Supreme Court Justice . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Savannah’s First Airmail Flight: A Public Relations Ploy . . . . 92
Robert E. Lee’s Savannah Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
The SS Savannah: Setting the Record Straight. . . . . . . . . . . . 98
The Hurricane of 1881 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
FDR in Savannah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Breaking the Color Barrier: The Original Nine . . . . . . . . . . 107
The Old Tybee Railroad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Lou Brissie and the Savannah Indians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Savannah’s Customs House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Elvis Rocks Savannah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Savannah’s First St. Patrick’s Day Parade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
George Washington’s Savannah Visit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Governor Talmadge Takes on FDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
A Civil War Christmas:
Shortages, Heartache, and Yankee Generosity . . . . . . . . . 131
Bethesda: A Lasting Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Dishonesty in High Places: The Yazoo Land Fraud . . . . . . . 138
The Atlantic Lifeline: Building Liberty Ships . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Ted Turner: To the America’s Cup and Beyond. . . . . . . . . . . 146
Rousakis Ousts Lewis: A New Political Era Begins . . . . . . . 150
Getting Away with Murder:
A 100-Year-Old Homicide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Part Two: The Personalities
James Pierpont: Expatriate, Rebel, Composer . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Conrad Aiken, Prize-Winning Poet Laureate . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Gen. James Oglethorpe, Georgia’s Founder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Gen. Nathanael Greene,
Victim of a Hot Savannah Summer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
G. Moxley Sorrell: Staff Officer’s Fortunes of War . . . . . . . 174
Flannery O’Connor, Southern Novelist and Enigma. . . . . . . 176
Mary Telfair, Uncompromising Philanthropist . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Andrew Bryan: Up from Slavery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Johnny Mercer, Oscar-Winning Lyricist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Archibald Bulloch, Statesman, Patriot, Soldier . . . . . . . . . . 186
Daniel J. Bourke: Son of Erin, Man of Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Gordon Saussy, Coach, Judge, Politician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Edward C. Anderson: Mayor Becomes Arms Dealer . . . . . . 192
John Wesley, Founder of Methodism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Gen. Frank O’Driscoll Hunter:
On a Wing and a Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Dr. Richard Arnold, Caring Physician and Mayor . . . . . . . . 203
Gen. Lachlan McIntosh, Valiant Scot,
Controversial Patriot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Col. John Deveaux, Voice of Moderation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Eugenia Price: Unlikely Southern Novelist . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Robert Anderson, General and Police Chief. . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
William W. Gordon, Young Man in a Hurry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Dr. Francis Bland Tucker: Man of Faith and Devotion . . . . . 217
Florence Martus, Savannah’s Waving Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
The Day Babe Ruth Played in Savannah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Gen. Lafayette McLaws:
Merely a Bust in Forsyth Park? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
John Houstoun: The Signer Who Did Not Sign . . . . . . . . . . 229
Juliette Gordon Low:
Girl Scouts Founder, Little Rebel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Henry McAlpin:
Empire Building on the Backs of Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Gen. Marquis de Lafayette: Hero of Two Nations. . . . . . . . . 237
Preface
T
he majority of the stories in this book were written for local
newspapers and magazines, primarily Morris Multimedia and
its subsidiaries.
From the moment I conducted research for the first article, I
became enthralled with the project. The opportunity to write about
Savannah’s history gave me the chance to dig deeply into the city’s
fabric, both its social and its political institutions. I rubbed shoulders
with the former federal judges, ex-cops, attorneys, both the reputable and the not so reputable, as well as the city’s social elite, former bookies, and what used to be referred to as gangsters.
Some of the essays in this work tell the story of the founding and
settling of Savannah, and subsequently Georgia, one of America’s
thirteen original colonies. Other stories, however, such as “Getting
Away with Murder,” “The Day Babe Ruth Played in Savannah,” and
“Elvis Rocks Savannah,” had never been told, at least in print. And
it is these stories that I think capture the essence of the city’s history,
albeit “the good, the bad, and the ugly,” to borrow the title of a Clint
Eastwood movie.
Hopefully, the broad assortment and range of stories in this work
will inform, entertain, and most of all enlighten all who wonder
about Savannah and what all the fuss is about.
Rebels, Saints,