All civilization grows up from and out of small centers and humble sources. A man, a house, a settlement, a machine, are the starting points of new and grand developments of social life and national history. The world is full of such records that find illustration and culmination in the fame and wealth and power that give success and triumph to personal enterprise and stability and grandeur to a nation's history. These are the memorials of the people --- the historic monuments lifting their heads in the sunlight and blazing from foundation to capstone with the effulgence that time and truth shed on the useful and the good. These, whether they come down from the dim and shadowy past or have their birth and fruition in the near and still remembered, are the antiquities of a place and a people. In the unusual acceptation of the term, our country has no antiquities. Art, science, literature, music, poetry, war, have left no records, given us no monuments. Its physical character, its broad prairies, its long rolling rivers, its vast inland seas, its hidden and exhaust's mineral wealth, its grand old forest, its extensive coast line, its glorious and majestic mountains --- these are its monuments; but they are monumental of "Eternal power and Godhead." Aside from these- and with these what dues-our only antiquities are Indian life and history, and the wreck and remnants of colonial times. The former, as to its origin and incidents, is involved in mystery and mixed with fable. But it is replete with interest to the curious and gorgeous with thrilling tales of field and flood to the workers of fiction. The latter blushes yet in virgin loveliness and beauty, and yet lifts it maiden hands, imploring Old Mortality to decipher its inscriptions, to generations coming and to come "the short and simple annals" of the people who from holy religious principles and love of liberty settled the lands which their children have enriched as a garden and made to "bloom and blossom as the rose."

    Jamestown, Croatan, Charleston, Savannah, are the colonial starting points of States that have given dignity and fame to American civilization and new elements of truth and power to augment the wealth of the world's history. These names and places, however waste and desolate some of them may now be, are monumental, and historic literature will keep them living and fresh in the memory of ages.

    Of Jamestown, a portion of the tower of its first church and the grave-stones of its forgotten dead are all that time has left of its material history and physical and social fortunes. Croatan is the dwelling-place of a small population, who gain a scanty subsistence as pilots and fishermen. Charleston, judiciously located at the confluence of two rivers whose tides mingle and are lost in the rushing waves of the Atlantic, perpetuates the good sense of its first settlers. Savannah grew into a city beautiful for situation, the joy of a State and renowned among the cities of our land for its trade, commerce, industry and enterprise, as well as for its intelligence, its wealth and its refinement. Its history is a souvenir of truth and honor-a memorial of the sagacity and forethought that in February, 1733, selected it as the home of the English colonists, the site of a city that now graces the beautiful river on whose side it stands and whose name it bears. The philosophy of its foundation and fortunes belong to the examples and facts of history. The tents under the four pine trees on the bluff have grown into a city that looketh out over the sea and stretcheth its hands of trade to collect and transmit the wealth of the Empire State of the south. The Indians, who greeted and gave a home to those comers from a land over "the great and wide sea," have given place to the guests they welcomed with strange words and uncouth ceremonial. Their wigwams no longer crown the bluff, they no longer paddle the light canoe over the flashing waters of the river; warrior and maiden, with their brave deeds and simple loves, chief and brave, council-tent and home, have all disappeared. A new day, a new people with the principles and powers of a new life, entered this wilderness when the small vessel, with a new life, entered this wilderness when the small vessel with Oglethorpe on its deck, passed in from the sea and sped its way up the placid river to the village-crowned bluff on its shore. The elegant and luxuriant mansions of the flower crowned city of today are the consummation and glory of the "day of small things. Between these days one hundred and thirty-five years of history, civil and social, personal and domestic, unfold their pages of trial and triumph, progress and pause, toil and suffering, virtue and licentiousness, life and death. Art, science, trade, commerce, law, literature, festivals and fasts, religion and vice, all await, each with its contribution of glory or shame, to fill the measure of the city's history. The records are brimming full.

    The object of the compilers is to open the long-closed volume, bring things long hidden out into the sunlight, make scenes long lying in darkness and shadow, names long lost amid passing events, voices long silent address us from the graves of the past; let us purchase, sit down and listen, "read, mark and inwardly digest" the facts to be disclosed and the words to be spoken.

    In placing this humble work before the public, the compilers would state that they claim nothing for it beyond what is name denotes- a brief record of the historical events connected with Savannah from the earliest period of its existence to the present time. They hope that it will be thorough and constitute a standard book of reference to all who desire to inquire into the history of the city of Savannah. To obtain information necessary to complete this record, much difficulty was experienced, and in many instances it was impossible to gain the desired facts. Especially was it difficult to obtain the names of the soldiers of Savannah who served during the late war. Many of the rolls of companies could not be obtained, and we were compelled to rely upon scraps of rolls, and frequently upon the memories of a few soldiers who cheerfully gave us all assistance in their power. Many of the facts contained herein were condensed or excerpted from McCall's and Bishop Stevens' Histories of Georgia, Whites Historical Collections of Georgia, Colonel C.C. Jones Record of the Chatham Artillery, and from old records in the possession of the Georgia Historical Society and citizens. To those who have rendered us assistance we tender our grateful thanks.