Your demand for the surrender of Savannah and its dependent forts is refused.

With respect to the threats conveyed in the closing paragraphs of your letter (of what may be expected in case your demand is not complied with), I have to say that I have hitherto conducted the military operations intrusted to my direction in strict accordance with the rules of civilized warfare, and I should deeply regret the adoption of any course by you that may force me to deviate from them in future.  I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. J. Hardee, Lieutenant-General.

Headquarters military division of the Mississippi,
in the field, near Savannah, December 18, 1864 8 p.m.

Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant, City Point, Virginia.

General:  I wrote you at length (by Colonel Babcock) on the 16th instant.  As I therein explained my purpose, yesterday I made a demand on General Hardee for the surrender of the city of Savannah, and to-day received his answer—­refusing; copies of both letters are herewith inclosed.  You will notice that I claim that my lines are within easy cannon-range of the heart of Savannah; but General Hardee asserts that we are four and a half miles distant.  But I myself have been to the intersection of the Charleston and Georgia Central Railroads, and the three-mile post is but a few yards beyond, within the line of our pickets.  The enemy has no pickets outside of his fortified line (which is a full quarter of a mile within the three-mile post), and I have the evidence of Mr. R. R. Cuyler, President of the Georgia Central Railroad (who was a prisoner in our hands), that the mile-posts are measured from the Exchange, which is but two squares back from the river.  By to-morrow morning I will have six thirty-pound Parrotts in position, and General Hardee will learn whether I am right or not.  From the left of our line, which is on the Savannah River, the spires can be plainly seen; but the country is so densely wooded with pine and live-oak, and lies so flat, that we can see nothing from any other portion of our lines.  General Slocum feels confident that he can make a successful assault at one or two points in front of General Davis’s (Fourteenth) corps.  All of General Howard’s troops (the right wing) lie behind the Little Ogeecbee, and I doubt if it can be passed by troops in the face of an enemy.  Still, we can make strong feints, and if I can get a sufficient number of boats, I shall make a cooperative demonstration up Vernon River or Wassaw Sound.  I should like very much indeed to take Savannah before coming to you; but, as I wrote to you before, I will do nothing rash or hasty, and will embark for the James River as soon as General Easton (who is gone to Port Royal for that purpose) reports to me that he has an approximate number of vessels for the transportation