Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/366

 frowning battlements of a model bastion commemorate the name of Pulaski.

At the siege of Savannah the city held only about four hundred houses and less than one thousand people. George Washington, who visited the city in 1790, writes in his diary that the place was "high and sandy," that the town was surrounded with "rich and luxuriant rice fields," that the harbor was "filled with square rigged vessels," and that the chief trade was tobacco, indigo, hemp, lumber and cotton. General Washington was received with every evidence of honor, and the Chatham Artillery was by him presented with handsome guns. This memorable organization, second only to the Ancient and Honorables, of Hartford, fired a salute to George Washington, as they afterwards did to Presidents Monroe, Arthur, Cleveland and McKinley upon their visits to this city. The Chathams served in the Civil War and in the late Spanish-American struggle.

The first steamship ever built in the United States was projected and owned in this city. It was named the Savannah, and in April, 1819, sailed for Liverpool, completing the voyage across the sea in twenty-two days. Off Cape Clear the Savannah was signalled as a vessel