The Massacre at Ebenezer Creek

Episode • Sep 1 • 37m

Just south of Savannah, Georgia, where the low country stretches into swampland, lies a quiet tributary shaded by thousand-year-old cypress trees. Today, paddlers drift across its dark waters, taking in the beauty of the moss-draped forest. But for many who visit, Ebenezer Creek carries a sense of unease—a heaviness that lingers in the air. Some say that when the water rises after storms, you can still hear desperate voices calling from its banks.

In December of 1864, during General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea, this peaceful waterway became the site of an unthinkable tragedy. Thousands of formerly enslaved men, women, and children trailed behind the Union Army, believing the blue uniforms meant deliverance. Instead, a single callous order at Ebenezer Creek left them abandoned on the wrong side of the water, with Confederate cavalry closing in. What followed was chaos, betrayal, and death on a massive scale.

For the soldiers who watched, the memory never faded. Some called it necessary. Others called it murder. In the years that followed, the tragedy at Ebenezer Creek cast a shadow not only on Sherman’s victory but on the promises of freedom itself.

In this episode, we trace the march that led to Ebenezer Creek, the massacre that unfolded there, and the echoes it left behind—from ghost stories on the water to one of the most famous broken promises of Reconstruction. mysteries.

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