Heh. Bit o’ local history: the Union had taken Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah river in 1861, so early on the city lost it’s strategic importance to the South. And the city was more or less undefendable from the landward side, so once Sherman’s army got through Georgia it was pretty much a foregone conclusion. And once taken it WAS strategically important to Sherman’s Carolina campaign, so the Union army had incentive not to burn the place to the ground. So given a choice between a hopeless fight and comparatively lenient defeat, Savannah chose the latter.
Just let this be a lesson to you, and next time you might think twice before you fire on Ft. Sumter! 
Also here is a wiki article on it. Sherman's March to the Sea - Wikipedia
I’ll summarize. Savannah was defended by about 10,000 men that had somewhat defensible positions and so it have been a nasty battle. Instead Sherman took Fort McAllister allowing him access to the sea which allowed him to receive supplies and, most importantly, heavy cannons that could bombard the city. Capturing the fort was not overly difficult (it took 15 min) because is was an earthen fort designed to be resistant to bombardment from ships and not to hold off a large force of soldiers.
After this happened Sherman demanded the troops’ surrender, but instead they escaped to South Carolina. At that point, as the city was entirely undefended, the mayor surrendered.
Well, I thought so, but then I read nametag’s post and I thought, well, maybe men’s fashion in the South is a little more cosmopolitan than out here in the West, or maybe he’s just a rebel that yells a little different – not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Sorry about your dog, Miz Zsofia. I gotta’ go hug my Daisy girl now, get a little of that Lab love slobbered on me.
Don’t you just love how we’re talking as if we personally experienced the Civil War a few decades ago?
The few times I’ve traveled in the South, I’ve found that Southerners actually do feel as if they’d just fought the war a few years ago. It’s a cultural thing, I think, because the Civil War was mostly fought in the South, and the Confederacy was literally prosecuted by the Union. Sherman’s march from Atlanta to the Atlantic was deliberately a very destructive thing – it was meant to completely humiliate and crush the spirit of all of those Americans living there. And South Carolina suffered the most, as it was viewed as the “cradle of the secession.” I understand how Southerners feel to this day about what was done then – they weren’t persuaded to re-join the Union, they were burned to the ground and scraped back into the United States.
It would be easy, of course, to denounce Southern stubbornness and pride for forcing the destruction that was required to defeat them. On the other hand, that stubbornness and pride stood the U.S.A. in good stead in every war after that. When I was in the Army, I was awfully glad those stiff-necked, hard-headed damn tarheels were on our side. (I know, “tarheel” is officially a North Carolinian, but I can’t think of any other nickname right now).