The mayor and a few of the citizens had not only a formal meeting to express loyalty to the Stars and Stripes, so long dishonored there, but asked for an exchange of rice for other articles of food. For this purpose a vessel was sent by permission of the commander-in-chief to New York. That city, Boston, and Philadelphia, immediately took measures to forward supplies. The accompanying message of the mayor of Boston was a fraternal and excellent tender of former friendship and a renewal of old associations. When, on January 19th, the steamship _Rebecca Clyde_ lay at the wharf with her large cargo of provisions, the mayor thanked the people of the North for their generosity, and complimented very warmly the “wise and impartial administration” of General Geary. He said: “He has restored order out of chaos, and made the people of Savannah feel that the Northern army has not come among them to ruin or pillage them. Life and property have been as safe during the Federal occupation as it ever had been under civil rule.” Captain Veale, of General Geary’s staff, replied, assuring the mayor that the “Federal officers and soldiers had always treated the people of the South with kindness and forbearance, and hoped that they would soon again join in one bond of brotherhood for the preservation and welfare of our common country. He also thanked the mayor for his high eulogium on General Geary, and assured him that the general’s object was to promote the welfare of Savannah and make her citizens feel that the Northern army was not inimical to the South.” Savannah in the old Revolutionary days extended her hand in time of trouble to Massachusetts, whose sons repay the debt of gratitude with unfeigned delight. Such were the events and scenes attending the return of the old flag to its place in Savannah, never again to be trailed in the dust by traitorous hands. CHAPTER XXIV. Major-General Sherman appreciated at Home—A Conflagration—A New and Bolder Campaign—An amusing Letter from a Rebel—General Sherman begins his March—Perils and Progress—Branchville and Columbia—Charleston.