Being somewhat of a history buff and always trying to expand my knowledge when we're on vacation, we stopped off at Fort Pulaski on our way back to Savannah from Tybee Island one day (see map). Fort Pulaski, now a National Monument, dates back to the pre-Civil War days when a series of forts were built up and down the east coast to repel any foreign attackers. During its construction, the fort was once under the command of 2nd Lt. Robert E. Lee not long after he had graduated from West Point.
Fort Pulaski is named in honor of Kazimierz PuĊaski, a Polish infantry man who served in the American Revolutionary Army under George Washington. Pulaski is often considered to be the man who taught the basics of calvary attack to the American forces. He also played a large role in the Revolutionary War battles at Savannah and Charleston, SC. A handful of cities with large Polish populations, such as Chicago and Milwaukee, feature large celebrations on Pulaski Day.
Fort Pulaski was finished in 1847, 18 years after construction began. Just before the Civil War began, there were no troops and only two "caretakers" at the fort. The governor of the State of Georgia decreed that the Georgia Militia take over the fort just after South Carolina succeeded from the Union in 1860. The "caretakers" were in turn rousted by a band of 100 Georgia Militia. When the Civil War started, the fort was designated as a Confederate fortification and occupied by Confederate troops.
About a mile across the channel from Fort Pulaski, Tybee Island was a remote and seemingly non-strategic island. The fort was built to withstand cannons that project cannon balls up to 1/2 mile. Confederate forces decided to abandon Tybee Island in early 1862. This allowed Union forces to move onto Tybee Island and build garrisons on the northwestern shore of the island across from Fort Pulaski. What the Confederate forces didn't know was that the Union possessed a new type of cannon - a rifled cannon - that was capable of firing projectiles 8 to 10 times further than conventional cannons.
The Battle of Fort Pulaski began in April of 1862 after a plea to surrender by Union forces was rebuffed by the Confederates. While the Confederates were certain they could hold back any infantry advancement due to the fort's thick wall and intricate moat system surrounding the walls, they were not ready for the new rifled cannon that Union forces used for the first time. The bombardment began on the morning of April 10 and lasted for over 30 hours. 36 of the Union Army's new James Rifled Cannons fired numerous shells into the fort before finally breaching the southeast wall of the fortification. Here is a picture of the wall on the east side of the fort with the remnants of damage from the Union forces shells.
The Confederates were worried that the shells were getting too close to munition storage facilities so they reluctantly surrendered the fort. Ironically, the new rifled cannons were decommissioned by Union forces not long after the siege of Fort Pulaski, mainly due to their lack of mobility. But the siege of Fort Pulaski also demonstrated to armies around the world that a typical masonry fort was no longer impervious to cannon fire.
After Union forces took over Fort Pulaski, all shipping in and out of Savannah stopped. This severely crippled the Confederate war effort. The Union forces repaired the fort and it became obvious as the war went on that the Confederates would have no way of being able to take back the fort. As a result, only 250 Union troops occupied Fort Pulaski during the rest of the war, and the Union turned the fort into a prison for captured Confederate soldiers. Over 600 Confederate soldiers were imprisoned at Fort Pulaski during the war. Here is a picture of what was the prison part of the fort.
The fort was also a final stopping point of the Underground Railroad where slaves wanting to go to the North would gather before being escorted to freedom by Union soldiers. After taking over Fort Pulaski from the Confederate forces, the fort's commandant had initially decreed that all slaves in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina be freed. President Lincoln quickly rescinded that order, but came out with his first Emancipation Proclamation in September of that year which decreed that all slaves in Confederate States that did not rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863 would be free men.
After paying a nominal $3.00 fee per person at the front gate that takes you over the bridge out to Cockspur Island, we parked in the very large parking lot near the Visitor's Center and looked at some of the exhibits they had on hand. They also had a small theater that showed a 20 minute film on the history of Fort Pulaski. We weren't too interested in that, so we wandered out the back of the center and down the sidewalk toward the fort. This picture is of the moat surrounding what was an underground tunnel system where munitions were kept in bunkers. The bunkers are actually outside the walls of the fort.
As we made our way around to the front entrance of the fort, this is what you see when you come to the drawbridge over the moat. It was explained to us that they would keep a loaded cannon pointed at the front entrance ready to fire if the drawbridge was breached. The drawbridge, the iron gate that was lowered into place and the moat around the fort gave it sort of a medieval feeling to the place.
The fort has been a National Monument since the 1920's. It had fallen into great disrepair since it really wasn't being used as a fort much after the 1880's. But since then, the government has taken steps to restore the fort to the way it was just after the Civil War. There were original furniture, bunks and furnishings in bunkhouses, the mess hall and officer's quarters. Here's what one bunkhouse built inside the wall of the fort looked like with the old bunks, a table and a couple benches. Most of the bunkhouses would sleep 10 to 12 soldiers.
One of the cool things about the fort was that they allowed you go up on the top of fort wall and look around out into the big courtyard and out over the wall. This picture is of the view of the north side of Cockspur Island looking toward the Savannah River. Across the bay is South Carolina.
This picture is of the main courtyard of the fort. This is looking southeast toward where the prison in the fort was. Actually, I was pretty impressed by how big the actual area of the fort was. It certainly wasn't dinky by any stretch of the imagination.
This picture shows the indent-ions made by the Union Army shells from the rifled cannons during the Battle of Fort Pulaski during the Civil War. This is on the INSIDE west wall of the fort, so those shells had to be falling all around the fort and causing some major damage. Those indentions, by the way, are about three feet in diameter. I'm sure those Confederate soldiers wondered what was hitting them.
I had Cindy stand next to one of the cannons they had on top of the fort wall. These cannons weren't that small and I wondered how they were able to get them up on top of the wall during pre-Civil War time. The cannons were on a pivot and could be pointed in about a 160 degree position. While they had many of these pivot rails atop the fort wall, they only had a couple three cannons still on display along the wall.
Fort Pulaski also has an interpretive center where volunteers will talk to groups about the history of the fort and offer demonstrations. This is actually a young lady dressed up in a Union Army uniform talking to a group of people about the intricacies of firing a musket with gun powder. She loaded the gun with powder and a ball, then fired the flintlock musket. And MAN, was it loud! She did it about five or six times. The first time she fired it off, I wasn't ready for the loud noise and I almost pissed my pants. They'll also do re-enactments of battles defending the fort, as well as shooting off a cannon. Now, THAT'S what I really wanted to see (and hear).
Before we left, we went out to the munitions bunkers under this mound just outside the fort's west wall. It was during the Battle of Fort Pulaski that the Confederate commandant felt that the Union shells were getting precariously close to going through the bunkers that were primarily reinforced with Tabby. That's when he decided to surrender. There really wasn't much to see in the bunkers, just a bunch of brick and Tabby mortared rooms with some tunnels.
While a visit to Fort Pulaski may not be for everyone, I sort of liked it. We didn't have anything else to do and it was rather interesting. I certainly didn't know the significance and history behind the fort, the role it played during the Civil War or how it was one of the last mason forts built in the world. But it took about 90 minutes out of our vacation, so it wasn't all that bad.
Comments