OurCoast.com :: Savannah City Guide

Courtesy of Best Read Guide

Madison Square, on Bull Street and the fourth square south from the river, was created in 1837. Its name honors the fourth president of the United States, James Madison. In keeping with the Savannah custom of placing monuments to Savannah's historic and military heroes along the Bull Street corridor, the square features a statue to Sergeant William Jasper, a hero of the Battle of Savannah in 1779. Sergeant Jasper, an Irish national who was offered a commission for bravery at the Battle of Fort Moultrie in Charleston in 1776 - he refused the commission because he could not read or write - led the American charge at Spring Hill, just west of town, to pierce the British line. The assault on the British line ended in defeat for the Americans, and Jasper was buried in a mass-grave with the other Continentals, French, and Irish who were killed that day.

The city remained under British rule until 1782, when forces directed by General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and Lieutenant Colonel James Jackson liberated the city. On Madison Square there is a marker denoting the British southern line of defense, and two cannons which commemorate the first two highways built in Georgia, which today are the Augusta Road and the Ogeechee Road.

In addition, the square is ringed by the Green-Meldrim House, most notable for hosting General William T. Sherman after Savannah fell during the Civil War, the Sorrel-Weed House, home to Confederate General G. Moxley Sorrel, and the former Savannah Volunteer Guards armory, which now houses offices and a gallery of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Also on the square are the St. John's Episcopal Church and the Scottish Rites Building.

Many thanks to Ron Freeman, whose book Savannah: People, Places & Events can be found at bookstores throughout the Historic District. Madison Square Bull Street between Macon Street and Charlton Street, fourteen blocks south of the river.