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Title: Fort Pulaski National Monument—Georgia
Author: Lattimore, Ralston B.
Language: English
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Fort Pulaski National Monument]
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[Illustration: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
March 3, 1849]
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fred A. Seaton, _Secretary_
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Conrad L. Wirth, _Director_
_HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER EIGHTEEN_
This publication is one of a series of handbooks
describing the historical and archeological areas in
the National Park System administered by the National
Park Service of the United States Department of the
Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing
Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of
Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Price 25 cents.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORT PULASKI
NATIONAL MONUMENT · _Georgia_
_by_
_Ralston B. Lattimore_
[Illustration: Portrait]
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES No. 18
Washington, D.C., 1954
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_The National Park System, of which Fort Pulaski National
Monument is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic,
scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the
benefit and inspiration of its people._
[Illustration: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_Contents_
COCKSPUR ISLAND, 1733-1829 1
THE NEW FORT ON COCKSPUR 4
“DON’T TREAD ON ME” 10
UNDER THE GEORGIA FLAG 14
THE GREAT EXPEDITION 17
GENERAL LEE RETURNS TO FORT PULASKI 19
INVESTMENT OF FORT PULASKI 22
THE NEW WEAPON 23
GILLMORE SETS THE STAGE 28
EVE OF BATTLE 29
BOMBARDMENT 31
SURRENDER 33
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIEGE 35
“THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED” 38
THE LAST SALUTE 40
COCKSPUR ISLAND AFTER 1865 42
GUIDE TO THE AREA 49
HOW TO REACH THE MONUMENT 55
ADMINISTRATION 55
ABOUT YOUR VISIT 56
RELATED AREAS 56
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: _The walls and moat of Fort Pulaski_, Photo by Franklin
Dulany.]
FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY _to the present, men have labored unceasingly
to surround their homes with impregnable fortifications while at the
same time they have tried to discover more powerful weapons to smash
through the defenses of other men. The Romans and the Chinese had their
great walls; the feudal lords of the Middle Ages had their moated
castles; and to modern times belong the Maginot and the Siegfried Lines
and the atom bombs. In these great efforts, and countless others like
them, man has confidently sought permanent security. But no man or
nation has yet devised a refuge safe against new weapons and new
tactics of a determined enemy. The age-old struggle between offense and
defense is the principal story of Fort Pulaski._
[Illustration: Sketch above: _Fort George, 1761._ From a drawing by de
Brahm.]
_Cockspur Island, 1733-1829_
After gathering its waters from the high valleys and slopes of the
Appalachian Mountains, the Savannah River follows a course
south-eastward 300 miles to the sea and forms a natural boundary
between South Carolina and Georgia. Plunging swiftly through narrow
gorges or drowsing through cypress swamps, this brown-red river moves
onward past pine-crested hills and smothered plains. Twelve miles from
the sea it leaves the firm land to sweep in lazy coils across a vast
and quivering marsh. Here the river splits into two channels divided by
low grassy islets almost completely submerged twice daily by the rising
of the tide. The easternmost of these islets, a mile long by less than
half a mile wide, is known as Cockspur Island from the shape of its
dangerous reef that juts out toward the open sound. Within sight of the
Atlantic Ocean, Cockspur guards the two entrances into the Savannah
River, one of the Nation’s great avenues of commerce. Despite the fact
that very few of its hundred or more acres lie above the highwater
mark, this island has played a significant role in the economic
development and military defense of coastal Georgia throughout the
history of colony and state. The island was considered so important
that one Royal Governor called it the “Key to Our Province,” and 20
acres on the eastern point were permanently set aside by the Crown and
later by the State as a site for harbor fortifications.
To the north and south of Cockspur lie the barrier islands of the
Carolina and Georgia coasts. On these great islands, and on mainland
plantations across the marshes, aristocratic planters with many slaves
developed the culture of rice, indigo, and cotton and helped to lay the
foundation of an agrarian economy in the South, a factor which was to
play a leading role in the controversies which divided the Nation in
the 19th century and led to civil war.
Past Cockspur Island, then called “The Peeper,” in February 1733 sailed
the pioneer band of English settlers under Gen. James Edward
Oglethorpe. At Yamacraw Bluff, 20 miles up the river, they established
Savannah, the small settlement which was the beginning of Georgia, the
13th American colony. To Cockspur Island, John Wesley, founder of
Methodism, made a momentous visit 3 years later. Here, his journal
records, he “... first set ... foot on American ground.” More important
in the history of religion, Wesley, during this sojourn at Cockspur,
engaged in serious theological discussions which seem to have implanted
in his mind the basic idea of Methodism.
[Illustration: _John Wesley._ Engraving by John Faber, Jr., from a
portrait by John Michael Williams. Courtesy Mrs. Craig Barrow.]
A few years later Colonial leaders, fearing an attack by their
perennial enemies at Spanish St. Augustine, advocated the construction
of a fort on Cockspur Island to protect the growing port of Savannah.
As a result Fort George, a palisaded log blockhouse, was begun in 1761
under the supervision of His Majesty’s Surveyor-General John Gerar
William de Brahm. This pioneer fort on Cockspur Point provided a
measure of defense for the Savannah harbor, but principally enforced
quarantine and customs regulations, until the revolutionary activities
of 1776 when it was dismantled and abandoned by the Patriots, who knew
the fortification could not stand against a strong fleet.
Soon after Fort George was abandoned, two British warships, accompanied
by a transport, arrived in Tybee Roads bent on securing fresh
provisions and information regarding the uprising in Georgia. Under
their formidable guns Cockspur Island served as a haven for Loyalists
fleeing from Savannah. Among the refugees was the Royal Governor, Sir
James Wright, who escaped to the island on the night of February 11,
1776. As he carried with him the great seal of the Province, Cockspur
Island became briefly the capital of colonial Georgia. In March, the
British ships boldly sailed up the river to Savannah where they engaged
the Patriots in a brief clash of arms and made off with several ships
laden with rice. With these events the story of Cockspur Island in the
Revolution was virtually at an end. When the British returned in force
to reoccupy Savannah in December 1778, the great fleet rendezvoused at
the anchorage off Cockspur Point, but the island lay deserted and
undisturbed.
After the United States was established as a nation, new defenses were
needed to safeguard the young republic, and, in accord with President
Washington’s national defense policy, a second fort was built in
1794-95, on Cockspur Island. Named Fort Greene in honor of the
Revolutionary hero, Gen. Nathanael Greene, who after the war made his
home at Mulberry Grove Plantation near Savannah, this fortification
consisted of a battery designed for six guns, and was constructed of
timbers and earth enclosed behind pickets. There was also a guardhouse
for the garrison.
The history of Fort Greene was brief and tragic. Nine years after the
fort was built, it was totally destroyed and a part of the garrison was
drowned in the great hurricane that swept Cockspur in September 1804.
Huge sea waves raked the island from end to end until not a vestige of
the fort remained. A quarter of a century was then to elapse before
Cockspur Island was again to be selected as the site of a fortification
to command the Savannah River.
[Illustration: _Sketch of Cockspur Island by Lt. Robert E. Lee, 1830._]
_The New Fort on Cockspur_
The United States can be proud of her victories in the War of 1812, but
there were also defeats. It was fortunate that while England was
fighting on this side of the Atlantic, her principal forces were
engaged in a death struggle with Napoleon on the continent of Europe.
American defenses were deplorably weak. On thousands of miles of
coastline there was scarcely a fort to oppose the enemy. British troops
pillaged and burned the city of Washington and laid waste to many
sections along the Middle Atlantic States. This humiliating and tragic
lesson soon aroused public opinion to demand strong measures for
protection.
After the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, which terminated the war with
Britain, President James Madison urged Congress to appropriate funds to
complete all forts then under construction and to extend the system of
fortifications in order that the United States might at all times be
prepared to prevent or repel the danger of foreign invasion.
The task of developing entirely new and adequate fortifications along
the far-flung Atlantic and Gulf coasts was one which required the
direction of a military expert with special engineering abilities. The
Government’s search for a person peculiarly fitted for this position
resulted in securing the services of the distinguished French
fortification and military engineer, Gen. Simon Bernard, who was then
seeking employment in the United States.
A graduate of the École Polytechnique in Paris, Bernard had served with
distinction in many of the campaigns of Napoleon. He displayed such
outstanding abilities in fortification and engineering tactics that he
soon acquired an enviable reputation. In 1815, after the Battle of
Waterloo, he came to the United States at the suggestion of Joseph
Bonaparte, bearing high recommendations to government officials from
Lafayette and Albert Gallatin. With the consent of Congress, which had
authorized the employment of a “skillful assistant,” President Madison
commissioned Bernard in the Corps of Engineers with the rank of
brigadier general by brevet. Early in December 1816, by direct order of
the President, General Bernard, Col. William McRee, and Col. Joseph G.
Totten formed a new “Board of Engineers,” the duties of which were to
devise a system of seacoast defense for the entire country.
President Monroe, who succeeded Madison, was even more energetic than
his predecessor in promoting the construction of new defenses. During
his administration fortification policies were established, surveys
were completed, and funds were provided to start construction.
[Illustration: _Diamondback terrapin._ _Sketch by Robert E. Lee,
Cockspur Island, 1831._ Courtesy F. B. Screven.]
Cockspur Island was chosen as the site for a new fort in March 1821,
when the river approaches to Savannah were surveyed by Capt. John Le
Conte under the personal supervision of Bernard, but construction on
Cockspur was not begun until 1829. Plans approved by Bernard in 1827
proved to be unsuitable and a revised plan was prepared in 1831. The
fort, as originally designed, was a massive 2-story structure mounting
3 tiers of guns. The deep mud of Cockspur, however, offered no
foundation for so great a weight. In revising the plans, it was
necessary to reduce the height of the walls and to provide heavy wooden
piles and grillage to support the brick masonry.
Maj. Samuel Babcock, of the Corps of Engineers, was placed in charge of
construction in December 1828, and work got under way early in the
following year. Difficulty was encountered almost immediately in
establishing title to the island, ownership of which was divided
between private interests and the State of Georgia. In colonial days,
from 4 to 20 acres on Cockspur Point had been reserved by the Crown for
public use, and after the Revolution title to the Crown land became
vested in the State. The two earlier forts, George and Greene, had been
erected within this special reserve. The western portion of Cockspur,
embracing approximately 150 acres, was granted in 1759 by George II to
Jonathan Bryan, Esq., from whom it passed, through several hands, to
the heirs of Edward Telfair, Governor of Georgia. On March 15, 1830,
the Telfair interests were purchased by the United States for $5,000,
and 15 years later the State of Georgia ceded the public lands on
Cockspur Point to the Federal Government.
Late in 1829, Robert E. Lee, newly graduated from the United States
Military Academy at West Point, was appointed to duty under Babcock. It
was his first military assignment. Young Lee had the title of “acting
assistant commissary of subsistence,” but, because of his superior
officer’s ill health, he actually ran the job for more than a year
until Babcock was succeeded by Lt. Joseph K. F. Mansfield. Lee began
the system of drainage and dikes for the island. He made numerous
surveys and located the permanent site for the fort. To Mansfield,
however, who served on Cockspur from 1831 to 1845, belongs chief credit
for construction. His great engineering ability, combined with a
passionate devotion to duty, enabled him to overcome almost
insurmountable difficulties to complete the fort.
[Illustration: _Brig. Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansfield, builder of Fort
Pulaski._ From The Photographic History of the Civil War.]
In 1833, the new fort was named Pulaski in honor of the Polish hero,
Count Casimir Pulaski, who fought in the American Revolution and was
mortally wounded at the Battle of Savannah on October 9, 1779. While
rallying French and American forces in an attack on a strong British
redoubt, Pulaski was struck in the thigh by a grape shot. He died 2
days later, and, according to tradition, was buried at sea near the
mouth of the Savannah River.
[Illustration: _Savannah, 1837._ Tempera painting by F. Cerveau.
Courtesy Georgia Historical Society.]
Work progressed at Fort Pulaski more or less continuously from 1829 to
1847, the year in which construction was essentially completed. It was
an enormous project. Bricks were bought in lots of from 1 to 7 million,
and it is probable that as many as 25,000,000 were put into the
structure. Lumber, lime, lead, iron, and many other supplies were
bought in proportionately large quantities. The rose-brown bricks, of
which the walls are largely built, were manufactured at the old
Hermitage Plantation 2 miles west of Savannah. The much harder,
rose-red bricks in the embrasures, arches, and the walls facing the
parade ground were purchased in Baltimore, Md., and Alexandria, Va. The
granite was quarried in New York State and the brown sandstone in the
valley of the Connecticut River. Negro slaves, rented from the owners
of neighboring rice plantations, performed many of the hard labor jobs,
while skilled masons and carpenters were recruited not only in Savannah
but were also brought down each fall from Northern States.
[Illustration: _Fort Pulaski plan._ Courtesy National Archives.]
[Illustration: _Fort Pulaski drawbridge plan._ Courtesy National
Archives.]
Throughout the long years of Mansfield’s service on Cockspur Island
there were many frustrating delays. There were summers in which all
work had to stop because of the danger from malaria, yellow fever,
typhoid, and dysentery. There were periods when Congress failed to
appropriate funds. At least once, Mansfield continued to build on
credit—a bold expedient, which no Government servant today would dare
to follow. There were also destructive hurricanes and bone-chilling
winter gales. By the end of his tour of duty Mansfield was thoroughly
discouraged, but through his determined perseverance he has left an
enduring monument.
Nearly a million dollars had been spent on Fort Pulaski by the end of
1860, but in one respect it was not yet finished. Its armament was to
include 146 guns, but only 20 guns had been mounted. Nor had the fort
yet been garrisoned. At the end of 1860, its entire complement included
a caretaker and an ordnance sergeant. For three decades, however, the
project on Cockspur Island had served as a training ground for the
Corps of Engineers, and with the exception of Major Babcock, who died
in 1831, every engineer officer employed on the construction of the
fort finally achieved the distinction of becoming a general in either
the Confederate or the Union armies.
“_Don’t Tread on Me_”
When Abraham Lincoln won the national presidential election on November
6, 1860, relations between North and South, already dangerously
strained, reached the breaking point. Lincoln, candidate of the
Republican Party, was supported also by a radical element in the North
and West that was demanding the abolition of slavery. Reaction in the
South to the result of the election was immediate. Southern
secessionists stirred the people of their section with fiery speeches
and sought to withdraw their States from the Union. Southern
conservatives tried to find a way out of political chaos by compromise,
but their task was hopeless. A whole generation had failed to discover
a successful plan by which the two sections of the country could live
at peace. The struggle had now gone beyond the bounds of a political
campaign; two divergent cultures stood face to face on the threshold of
war.
With remarkable clarity of vision Gov. Joseph E. Brown of Georgia began
to put his State in a condition of defense many months in advance of
hostilities. The State volunteer military forces were reorganized and
strengthened, and many new volunteer companies were formed. On his
recommendation the legislature appropriated a million dollars for State
defense, authorized the acceptance of 10,000 troops, and provided for a
convention on January 16, 1861, to determine the future course of
Georgia.
Meanwhile, Governor Brown continued to rush preparations for defense.
He obtained from the War Department sample sets of U. S. Army infantry
and cavalry equipment, which he proposed to manufacture in Georgia. The
Secretary of War also described, on request, the type of rifled cannons
and projectiles which the War Department had found superior. Orders for
cannon and arms were placed in Northern States, and a bonus of $10,000
was offered by the State to anyone setting up a cannon factory in
Georgia which could make 3 guns a week and could cast a 10-inch
columbiad.
[Illustration: _Georgia troops on parade before the Pulaski Monument in
Savannah._ _Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, 1861._]
In the midst of these preparations came the announcement that South
Carolina had seceded from the Union on December 20. The news of this
action was received in Georgia with demonstrations of wild excitement.
In Savannah, people wearing secession cockades made of palmetto leaves
erected a platform in one of the principal squares on which they placed
a large picture of a rattlesnake with the inscription, “Don’t Tread on
Me.” On the evening of December 26, companies of militia and citizens
marched with torch lights and transparencies through the streets of
Savannah in honor of South Carolina, and houses all over the community
were brilliantly illuminated.
Simultaneously an event was taking place in Charleston, S. C., that was
to have an almost immediate effect on the course of action in Georgia,
and, in fact, on the destiny of the entire South.
On that same evening, Maj. Robert Anderson, in command of the United
States troops stationed in Charleston Harbor, moved his small garrison
from an insecure position at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, to
Fort Sumter, a strong fortification in the middle of the harbor. This
unexpected move enraged not only the people of Charleston, but of all
the slave-holding States. President James Buchanan, it was understood,
had assured the Government of South Carolina that no change in the
status of the United States forces at Charleston would be made until
the difficulties between the State and Federal Governments had been
settled. Major Anderson, however, fearing that an attack was imminent,
evacuated Fort Moultrie with great secrecy, spiked the cannons and
burned most of the gun carriages.
The news of the occupation of Fort Sumter, which reached Savannah by
telegraph early Thursday morning, December 27, stunned the people, it
is said, like “an electric shock.” Groups of angry citizens gathered on
the streets to discuss the news and to give vent to their feelings.
“There is but one sentiment on the question,” announced the Savannah
_Republican_, “and that is of indignation and resistance.... We might
have been quieted by a milder course, but there are none of us so
degraded as to submit to being whipped into submission.”
Federal forces in possession of Fort Sumter had Charleston Harbor
blocked. The same danger, it was argued at a meeting of civil and
military leaders, threatened the Georgia seaport, for, if it was the
policy of the United States to provoke a war, the Federal Government,
in furtherance of that policy, would occupy and hold all forts
commanding the harbors of the Southern States. For their own safety,
therefore, the people of Savannah determined to seize Fort Pulaski
before the Federal Government had time to send a garrison to defend it.
Military men in Savannah realized the gravity of taking so serious a
step toward revolution as, no doubt, did thoughtful civilians, but the
popular spirit of the mob had been stirred to the point of spontaneous
action. On the night of December 31, the Savannah _Republican_ received
a copy of an ominous telegram to Alexander H. Stephens from United
States Senator Robert Toombs, of Georgia. In this telegram Toombs
warned the State of Georgia that a policy of coercion had been adopted
by the Administration, that Joseph Holt, a bitter foe of the South, had
been made Secretary of War, that the abolitionists were defiant, and
that, in consequence, Fort Pulaski was in danger. The time had come for
action.
[Illustration: _Gov. Joseph E. Brown, who ordered the seizure of Fort
Pulaski._ From Avery’s _History of Georgia_.]
Early next morning, Col. Alexander R. Lawton, in command of the 1st
Volunteer Regiment of Georgia, telegraphed Governor Brown requesting
him to come to Savannah at once. The Governor arrived about 9 p. m.,
and, after several meetings with leading citizens and military men,
ordered the State militia to seize Fort Pulaski.
As there were no Federal troops garrisoned at Fort Pulaski, no
difficulty was anticipated in seizing it, but the task of preparing an
expedition in 24 hours for the purpose of occupying the stronghold was
not a small matter. Arms, ammunition, and equipment had to be provided,
commissary supplies purchased, and a steamboat for the transportation
of men and baggage to Cockspur Island had to be secured. Detachments of
50 men each from the Savannah Volunteer Guards and the Oglethorpe Light
Infantry and 34 men from the Chatham Artillery were selected to make
the expedition. Each man was instructed to carry with him a knapsack
containing a change of clothing, iron spoon, knife, fork, tin cup,
clothesbrush, shoebrush, box of blacking, and a comb and brush.
[Illustration: _Col. Alexander R. Lawton, who seized Fort Pulaski._
Courtesy the late Mrs. A. R. Lawton, Sr.]
Early next morning, January 3, 1861, the troops assembled in a pouring
rain and marched through streets lined with cheering citizens to the
wharf at the foot of West Broad Street, where they embarked on the U.
S. Government sidewheel steamboat, _Ida_, for the journey down the
river. In personal command was Colonel Lawton. This small expeditionary
force is said to have carried enough baggage to have served a division
later in the war. Every soldier had a trunk, a cot, and a roll of
bedding, while to every 3 or 4 men there was a huge mess chest large
enough for the cooking outfit of a full regiment. Aboard also was the
battery of the Chatham Artillery, which consisted of two 12-pounder
howitzers and four 6-pounder field guns, all bronze.
[Illustration: _U. S. Government sidewheel steamboat, Ida_]
At noon, the Savannah troops reached Cockspur Island and marched into
Fort Pulaski with drums beating and colors flying. Colonel Lawton took
formal possession of the fortification and the flag of Georgia was
raised above the ramparts and saluted. No resistance was encountered.
As the troops marched out on the parade ground of the fort, clouds
which had obscured the sky for nearly a week broke away and the sun
shone brightly. This was taken as a good omen. Georgia was now in
possession of the strong fortification at the mouth of the Savannah
River. The Governor’s orders were to hold it against all persons and to
abandon it only under new orders from him or under compulsion by an
overpowering hostile force.
_Under the Georgia Flag_
Fort Pulaski was in no condition for defense on January 3 nor for many
weeks thereafter. Had the Federal Government taken immediate and
effective action, the incident on Cockspur Island might have ended
quickly in complete fiasco. When Capt. Francis S. Bartow of the
Oglethorpe Light Infantry took command of the post there was not a
single serviceable gun in the fort. The moat was filled with mud and
overgrown with marsh grass. Furthermore, the military experience of the
members of his garrison had been limited to armory drill and dress
parade.
During the first weeks after the seizure there was feverish activity to
put the fort in condition required to withstand attack. Twenty
32-pounder naval guns, which had been mounted in 1840, were remounted
in the casemates and on the ramparts. More than 100 rice-field slaves
were engaged to dig the mud from the moat, and daily boat service was
established between Savannah and Cockspur Island.
For a few days the garrison was in a state of great confusion. Baggage,
which had preceded the troops, was hopelessly mixed up. Some squads
with food had no pots to cook it in, while other squads with an
abundance of pots and pans had no knives or forks with which to eat.
Strict discipline, however, soon brought order out of chaos. All day
the men were kept busy. They drilled in the manual of arms and learned
to handle artillery. They sorted and redistributed equipment, filled
mattress covers with hay, made cartridge bags, and stowed their
ammunition in the magazines. Spirits were high and the men worked with
a will.
As additional guns were secured they were mounted and others were
ordered from the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. A telegraph line was
erected between Savannah and Cockspur Island. Earthworks were
constructed and manned on Hilton Head Island, in South Carolina, Tybee
Island, and other islands southward along the Georgia coast. Fort
Jackson, 5 miles below Savannah, was placed in order and work was begun
on an interior line of defenses from Red Bluff on the north bank of the
Savannah River delta to Genesis Point on the south bank of the Great
Ogeechee.
The land defenses were supplemented by a small fleet of river boats on
which guns had been mounted. This motley collection of side-wheelers,
known as the Georgia Navy, was under the command of Commodore Josiah
Tattnall, famous old naval officer, who years before had brought United
States ships to the rescue of the British in China waters with the
battle cry “Blood is thicker than water.”
In the late spring of 1861, the defenses of Savannah were not yet
perfect but they were rapidly gaining in strength. In company with
Commodore Tattnall and General Lawton, William Howard Russell,
correspondent of the _London Times_, inspected these defenses on May 1.
At Cockspur Island, Russell found a guard on duty at the landing,
“tall, stout young fellows in various uniforms or in rude mufti, in
which the Garibaldian red shirt and felt slouched hats predominated.
They were armed with smoothbore muskets (date 1851), quite new; and
their bayonets, barrels and locks were quite bright and clean. The
officer on duty was dressed in blue frock coat with brass buttons
emblazoned with the arms of the State, a red silk sash, and glazed
kepi, and straw colored gauntlets.”
[Illustration: _The Republican Blues of Savannah._ _Harper’s Weekly,
1860._]
Russell was impressed by the strength and solidity of the fort and by
the preparations being made for its defense. He found its garrison of
650 men hard at work. Tents were pitched in the demilune and on the
terreplein, and the parade ground presented a scene of life and
animation. Men were building sandbag traverses to guard the magazine
doors. Other were rolling away stores and casks of ammunition and
provisions, while still others were mounting 10-inch columbiads on the
ramparts.
Notwithstanding the praise he gave to Fort Pulaski at the conclusion of
his tour, Correspondent Russell was not convinced that Savannah was
safe from invasion. He pointed out to General Lawton the weaknesses of
the fort. The lowland, he said, made it accessible to boats, and it was
open to approach from the rear.
“True enough,” Lawton agreed, but added boastfully, “the Commodore will
take care of the Yankees at sea and we shall manage them on land!”
Tattnall smiled. “I have no fleet,” he said, “and long before the
Southern Confederacy has a fleet that can cope with the Stars and
Stripes, my bones will be white in the grave.”
That night Russell recorded in his diary: “These people all make a
mistake in referring to the events of the old war. ‘We beat off the
British fleet at Charleston by the militia—ergo, we’ll sink the
Yankees now.’ They do not understand the nature of the new shells and
heavy vertical fire, or the effect of projectiles from great distances
falling into works.... We got back by eight o’clock p. m. after a
pleasant day. What I saw did not satisfy me that Pulaski was strong, or
Savannah very safe.”
On April 9, a private in Company D, 1st Regiment of Georgia, wrote to
his mother, “We look for a fight every day. We are well prepared, and
the boys are in good spirits ‘Spilin’ for a fight.”
People in the South who were spoiling for a fight did not have long to
wait. In Charleston Harbor, at 4:30 on the morning of April 12, 1861, a
Confederate mortar at Fort Johnson fired a shell which arched across
the sky and burst almost directly over Fort Sumter. With this shot, the
tragedy of civil war began.
On May 21, Francis S. Bartow, who had opposed the seizure of Fort
Pulaski and yet had served as its first commanding officer under the
Georgia flag, led the Oglethorpe Light Infantry to the railroad station
to entrain for Virginia. The streets were lined with cheering citizens;
the band played “Bold Soldier Boy.” Two months later, in a gallant
charge on the Federal batteries at Manassas, Bartow, now a brigadier,
was shot through the heart.
[Illustration: _Blockade of the Savannah River._ From _Harper’s
Pictorial History of the War of 1861_.]
_The Great Expedition_
By midsummer, 1861, the North had already planned the strategy that led
to the fall of Fort Pulaski. This plan included a naval blockade of the
South and the recapture of the southern seacoast fortifications. On
October 29, a combined Army and Navy expedition sailed under sealed
orders from Hampton Roads. The great convoy, composed of 51 vessels,
moved out to sea in 3 columns—an impressive sight that foreshadowed
the amphibious movements of World War II. Twenty-five colliers under
gunboat escort had sailed the day before. Army forces numbering more
than 12,500 men were under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Sherman,
while the naval squadron and the convoy were commanded by Capt. Samuel
F. Du Pont.
At destination, the invading troops were to land in three waves by
means of surf boats capable of carrying from 70 to 100 men each. These
boats were to approach the beach abreast in line of battle. Infantry,
light artillery, and engineers with entrenching tools and sandbags were
to go in on the first wave and were expected to overcome initial enemy
resistance and dig in on the beach. Heavy field artillery would move in
on the second wave and reserves on the third. As soon as the landing
had been effected, all boats were to report to the chief quartermaster
for unloading supplies.
[Illustration: _Federal troops land on Hilton Head Island, November 7,
1861._ Sketch by W. T. Crane in _The Soldier in Our Civil War_.]
This plan of battle was never executed, for a few days after sailing
the expedition ran into a terrific storm off Cape Hatteras. Several
vessels and many of the landing craft were lost. Thus handicapped,
General Sherman might have had grave difficulty in securing the
beachhead. When the convoy finally reassembled off Port Royal Sound, S.
C., the Navy took the initiative. On November 7, Flag Officer Du Pont
led his squadron of steam-propelled vessels to the entrance of the
sound where he formed a great oval between the two Confederate forts on
Hilton Head and Bay Point. Steaming continuously each vessel fired a
broadside as it came opposite one of the forts. So punishing was the
effect of this naval bombardment that the Confederates abandoned both
fortifications, and the landings on Hilton Head and Bay Point were
unopposed. A few days after this initial battle, the town of Port Royal
on the mainland fell to the expeditionary force. From these vantage
points within sight of Cockspur Island, the Federal troops were made
ready to strike at Fort Pulaski.
_General Lee Returns to Fort Pulaski_
The fall of the forts at Hilton Head and Bay Point and the complete
rout of the Confederate forces defending them brought panic to Savannah
and the adjacent countryside. It was assumed that the Georgia seaport
was the real objective of the Federal expedition, and many people, who
could afford it, fled to towns and cities in the interior of the State.
At this critical moment Robert E. Lee arrived in Savannah to take
charge of the defense. Lee, who had resigned his commission in the
United States Army when Virginia seceded from the Union, was now a
brigadier general under Confederate colors and had been given command
of the forces in South Carolina, Georgia, and east Florida.
The Battle of Port Royal Sound demonstrated to Lee that without
adequate naval support it would be impossible to defend the small
batteries and forts on the seacoast islands which were all within range
of the powerful guns of the Federal fleet. Nor would it be possible to
prevent enemy landings on these beach islands without immobilizing
thousands of troops for garrison duty, troops that were badly needed in
other theaters of war. Even if the manpower could have been spared for
island defense, the logistical difficulties of arming and supplying
isolated and remote outposts were beyond the capacities of the State or
Confederate Governments.
With these considerations in mind, Lee ordered the abandonment of the
sea islands of Georgia, the removal of the guns from the batteries, and
the withdrawal of the troops to the inner line of defenses on the
mainland. This strategy was later confirmed and made the policy of the
Confederate Department of War.
On November 10, Tybee Island was abandoned. All batteries were leveled
and the heavy guns were ferried across the South Channel to Fort
Pulaski. Two companies of infantry from the Tybee garrison were added
to the complement at the fort and the remaining troops were withdrawn
to Savannah. This was a fateful move for it directly affected the
destiny of Fort Pulaski.
At the time, however, no new danger to the fortification on Cockspur
Island was anticipated through the abandonment of Tybee Island. It was
expected that the fort could defend itself successfully against a naval
attack and it was also considered safe from land bombardment. To keep
open a line of communications and supply, all side channels leading
into the Savannah River above the fort were barred by obstructions.
These obstructions, in turn, were protected by floating mines activated
by galvanic batteries. The mines, or “infernal machines” as they were
called in the naval report, were a new invention which the Confederates
borrowed from the Russians. The responsibility for denying the Federal
gunboats an opportunity to force a passage through the obstructed side
channels into the Savannah River was assigned to Tattnall’s flotilla.
In theory, at least, it should have been possible to hold out at Fort
Pulaski indefinitely. When the supply line was finally cut, it was not
due to any failure in the plan for the protection of the river, but
rather to a lack of vigilance on the part of the Georgia Navy, which
permitted the Federals to construct strong batteries in the marshes on
the north and south banks of the Savannah between the fort and the city.
Twice during November, General Lee inspected the fort on Cockspur
Island and gave minute instructions regarding the manner in which it
was to be defended. He foresaw the danger of attack from the rear and
ordered certain guns to be mounted on the ramparts above the gorge.
Fort Pulaski celebrated Christmas, 1861, in a big way. The men of the
garrison felt snug and secure. In the messes, the tables groaned under
the weight of delicacies sent down by friends in Savannah. Eggnog
parties were held in many of the casemates. Pvt. John Hart of the Irish
Jasper Greens wrote exuberantly in his diary: “Fine day here. Plenty of
fighting and whisky drinking.”
Ten miles away, in the Federal camp on Hilton Head Island, Christmas
was not quite so pleasant. The men were kept hard at work digging
entrenchments and unloading captured cotton from a steamboat. When the
troops were finally released to enjoy themselves, they had to find
their own entertainment. Pvt. Charles Lafferty, of the 48th Regiment of
New York Volunteers, wrote his sister: “We had a merry Christmas down
hear. We bought sassiges of the nigers and hoe cake and build a fir and
cooked our sassiages. That is the way we spent our Christmas.”
_Investment of Fort Pulaski_
In the summer of 1861, President Lincoln proclaimed a naval blockade of
the South, but it was not until after the Battle of Port Royal Sound,
when Flag Officer Du Pont took direct command, that the Union patrols
on the Carolina and Georgia coasts became effective. The British
Steamer _Fingal_, with munitions, ordnance, and other supplies, got
through to Savannah on November 13 and had the distinction of being the
last ship to run the blockade into that port. Pulaski’s share of the
cargo was two 24-pounder Blakely rifles and a large number of Enfields.
Early in December, Du Pont tightened the stranglehold he already had on
the commerce of Savannah by sinking vessels loaded with stone across
the channel of the river, and by placing gunboats in Ossabaw and Warsaw
Sounds to prevent entrance or escape through these back doors to the
port.
After setting up headquarters on Hilton Head Island on the north shore
of Tybee Roads, General Sherman kept his men busy repairing and
strengthening the fortifications on Port Royal Sound. He constructed an
extensive base for operations and established a hospital. On December 4
he requisitioned siege guns for the proposed attack on Fort Pulaski and
not long after he landed a permanent garrison on Tybee Island.
[Illustration: _Occupation of Tybee Island by Federal troops brings
panic to Savannah._ Contemporary sketch from _The Soldier in Our Civil
War_.]
While engaged in these activities Sherman conceived the idea that it
might be more advantageous to by-pass Fort Pulaski and make a direct
attack on the city of Savannah. He tried to sell this plan to the
commander of the naval forces on whom he would have to depend for
transport, protection, and assistance in the siege operations he had in
mind. Du Pont obligingly ordered a reconnaissance of the winding
waterways that led into the Savannah River above Fort Pulaski, but when
he discovered how shallow these waterways were at certain stages of the
tide, he pronounced the whole scheme impractical and dangerous. This
difference of opinion between the Army and Navy commanders on the
conduct of the campaign finally led to the removal of Sherman, but in
the meantime the general ordered a tight noose of batteries and
gunboats to be thrown around Fort Pulaski.
When the Confederate supply ship, _Ida_, came down the Savannah River
on the morning of February 13 on one of her regular trips to the fort,
a battery of heavy guns, which the Federals had secretly constructed at
Venus Point on the north bank of the river, opened up. The old
sidewheeler ran the gauntlet under full steam with shots splashing in
her wake. Luck was with her, for the Federal guns, after firing nine
shots, recoiled off their platforms. It was the _Ida’s_ last trip to
Pulaski. Two days later she slipped her moorings, ran down the South
Channel under the guns of the fort, rounded the point at Lazaretto, and
returned to Savannah through Tybee Creek and the Wilmington Narrows.
During the following week the Federals completed the absolute
investment or blockade of Fort Pulaski. They built another strong
battery on the south bank of the Savannah River opposite Venus Point
and threw a boom across Tybee Creek. To seal this waterway they
entrenched two companies of infantry along its bank and assigned a
gunboat to patrol the channel. At the same time they destroyed the
telegraph line between Savannah and Cockspur Island. From now on
neither supplies nor reinforcements could be brought to the fort, nor
could the Confederate garrison escape to the mainland. After February
15 the only communication with Savannah was by courier who came and
went by night through the marshes, often having to swim the creeks and
rivers to avoid the Federal pickets.
Five companies formed the garrison of Fort Pulaski when the fort was
cut off. Company B of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, the German
Volunteers, the Washington Volunteers, and the Montgomery Guards were
members of the 1st Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. The Macon Wise
Guards was accredited to the 25th Regiment of Georgia Regulars. The
total strength of the garrison was 385 officers and men. In command was
Charles H. Olmstead, who had been elected colonel of the 1st Volunteer
Regiment on December 26. To defend the fort there were 48 guns.
[Illustration: _Col. Charles H. Olmstead, who defended Fort Pulaski._
Courtesy Miss Florence Olmstead.]
The armament was distributed evenly to command all approaches. On the
ramparts facing Tybee Island were five 8-inch and four 10-inch
columbiads, one 24-pounder Blakely rifle, and two 10-inch seacoast
mortars. In the casemates bearing on Tybee were one 8-inch columbiad
and four 32-pounder guns, while in batteries outside the fort were two
12-inch and one 10-inch seacoast mortars. The remaining guns were
mounted to command the North Channel of the Savannah River and the
sweeping marshes to the west.
_The New Weapon_
The time had come to decide whether to take Fort Pulaski by force or to
wait for the garrison to starve. The fort had been provisioned on
January 28 with a 6 months’ supply of food, which might have been made
to last, by careful rationing, to mid-August or even September.
Eventually, however, surrender would have been inevitable. Sherman was
undoubtedly aware of these circumstances, but he does not seem to have
given serious thought to playing a waiting game. The Northern press was
clamoring for action, and Sherman, himself, was still bent on the quick
capture of Savannah. Whatever merit this dream may have had will never
be known, for on February 14 the Commanding General of the United
States Army ordered the entire effort of the expeditionary force to be
expended on the reduction of Fort Pulaski.
Long before this order reached headquarters on Hilton Head Island,
Sherman had taken decisive action. On February 19 he sent his Chief
Engineer, Capt. Quincy A. Gillmore, to take command of all troops on
Tybee Island and to prepare for the bombardment of Fort Pulaski.
Gillmore was destined to play the leading role in the Fort Pulaski
story and win for the fort a permanent niche in the military annals of
the United States. A brilliant member of the Corps of Engineers, he is
described by the newspaper correspondent, Whitelaw Reid, as “a
quick-speaking, quick-moving, soldierly man ... a fine, wholesome
looking, solid six footer, with big head, broad, good humored face, and
a high forehead faintly elongated by a suspicion of baldness, curly
brown hair and beard, and a frank open face.” His greatest attribute as
a soldier was a fearless disregard for tradition. At the Battle of Fort
Pulaski, Gillmore was breveted a brigadier and later he became a major
general of volunteers.
[Illustration: _Brig. Gen. Q. A. Gillmore, who captured Fort Pulaski._
_Harper’s Weekly_, September 12, 1863. Courtesy Gen. Quincy A.
Gillmore.]
In 1862, Fort Pulaski was considered invincible. Its 7½-foot solid
brick walls were backed with massive piers of masonry. The broad waters
of the Savannah River and wide swampy marshes surrounded the fort on
all sides. Ships of the Navy could not safely come within effective
range of this citadel, and there was no firm ground on which land
batteries could be erected nearer than Tybee Island, from 1 to 2½ miles
away. All previous military experience had taught that beyond a
distance of 700 yards smoothbore guns and mortars would have little
chance to break through heavy masonry walls, and beyond 1,000 yards no
chance at all.
In referring to Fort Pulaski, the United States Chief of Engineers,
General Totten, said “you might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains.”
General Lee, himself, standing on the parapet of the fort with Colonel
Olmstead, pointed to the shore of Tybee Island and remarked, “Colonel,
they will make it pretty warm for you here with shells, but they cannot
breach your walls at that distance.” In the minds of the experts a
long-range bombardment would merely serve to pave the way for a direct
assault.
[Illustration: _Air view of Fort Pulaski._]
Gillmore held a different opinion. He was familiar with the test
records of a new weapon, the rifled gun, with which the Army had begun
to experiment in 1859, and, on December 1, 1861, he broke with
tradition and risked the laughter of his superiors. After a careful
reconnaissance he reported to Sherman that it would be possible to
reduce Fort Pulaski with mortars and rifled guns from Tybee Island. On
this basis he submitted a complete plan for the attack on Fort Pulaski.
Sherman approved the plan, but he made it clear that he doubted the
usefulness of the rifled guns. In concluding his endorsement he wrote,
“All that can be done with guns is to shake the walls in a random
manner.”
[Illustration: _Gillmore’s plan for the bombardment._ Courtesy National
Archives.]
_Gillmore Sets the Stage_
From the 21st of February, when ordnance and ordnance stores began to
arrive in Tybee Roads, until April 9th, Gillmore gave the men of his
command no rest. To put his plan for the siege into effect was a
Herculean task. Materials, supplies, ammunition, and guns had to be
unloaded through the surf and then transported long distances across
sand and marsh. Gun emplacements, magazines, bomb-proof shelters, and
roads had to be constructed. And last, but not least, gun crews had to
be trained.
Detailed to this back-breaking assignment were the 7th Regiment
Connecticut Volunteers, the 46th New York Volunteers, two companies of
the Volunteer Engineers, and, for most of the time, two companies of
the 3rd Rhode Island Volunteer Artillery.
On the northwest shore of Tybee Island facing Fort Pulaski these troops
erected 11 batteries for guns and mortars. Their job was made
particularly difficult because the last mile of the shore, on which
seven of the major batteries had to be established, was an open marsh
in full view of the fort and within effective range of its guns. Here
all work was performed at night. The men were not allowed to speak
above a whisper and were guided by the notes of a whistle. Before dawn
each morning evidence of the night’s work was concealed by camouflage.
When the batteries were ready, the guns were hauled across the marsh on
sling carts. These loads were so extraordinarily heavy that it was
often necessary to harness 250 men to a cart. Even on the last night
before the bombardment the work continued. In the flickering light of
lanterns men filled cartridge bags, cut paper fuses, and whittled
wooden fuse plugs.
[Illustration: _Guns were hauled by manpower._ From _Harper’s Pictorial
History of the War of 1861_.]
The final armament comprised 36 pieces placed at various distances from
the fort as shown in the following table:
1. Battery, Stanton, 3 heavy 13-inch Mortars, at 3,400 yds
2. “ Grant, 3 heavy 13-inch Mortars, “ 3,200 “
3. “ Lyon, 3 heavy 10-inch Columbiads, “ 3,100 “
4. “ Lincoln, 3 heavy 8-inch Columbiads, “ 3,045 “
5. “ Burnside, 1 heavy 13-inch Mortar, “ 2,750 “
6. “ Sherman, 3 heavy 13-inch Mortar, “ 2,650 “
7. “ Halleck, 2 heavy 13-inch Mortar, “ 2,400 “
8. “ Scott, 3 10-in. Columbiads, } “ 1,740 “
Scott, 1 8-in. Columbiads, }
9. “ Sigel, 5 30-pdr. Parrott, } “ 1,670 “
Sigel, 1 48-pdr. James, (old 24 pdr.) }
10. “ McClellan, 2 84-pdr. James, (old 42 pdr.) } “ 1,650 “
McClennan, 2 64-pdr. James, (old 32 pdr.) }
11. “ Totten 2 10-inch Siege Mortars, “ 1,650 “
_Eve of Battle_
On March 31, when preparations for the bombardment were almost
complete, General Sherman was relieved of his command, and
responsibility for the campaign in the Department of the South was
turned over to Maj. Gen. David Hunter. While this move undoubtedly led
to greater harmony of action between Army and Navy leaders, Sherman
deserves much of the credit for the successful operations against
Pulaski. Neither General Hunter nor Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham, whom he
had placed in command of the Northern District of the Department,
suggested a single change in the siege works under construction on
Tybee, and Gillmore was retained to conduct the bombardment. On the
afternoon of April 9, everything was in readiness to open fire. General
orders were issued, the Navy alerted, and the battle set for the
following morning.
On Cockspur Island, meanwhile, the Confederates were engaged in making
final arrangements to defend Fort Pulaski. The garrison had worked long
hours, and the men were weary and apprehensive. In accord with the
instructions of General Lee they tore down the light veranda in front
of the officers’ quarters and replaced it with a traverse or covered
passage made of timbers and earth. They piled sandbags between the guns
on the ramparts and dug “rat holes” in the terreplein for the
protection of the gunners. To prevent round shot and shell from
rolling, they cut the entire parade ground into wide traps and trenches.
In Savannah, on the eve of the battle for Pulaski, a large audience
unaware of the impending event, was entertained by Blind Tom, famous
Negro pianist, who played his original composition, “The Battle of
Manassas.”
[Illustration: _Confederates prepare Fort Pulaski for battle._
Contemporary drawing made after bombardment for _Harper’s Pictorial
History of the War of 1861_.]
_Bombardment_
Morning on the 10th of April 1862, broke clear and cold. A fresh
easterly wind whipped the red waters of the Savannah River into
whitecaps, and the brown and purple marshes were showing the green of
early spring. Soon after sunrise, a lieutenant on duty on the ramparts
of Fort Pulaski reported that suspicious changes in the landscape had
been made during the night on Tybee Island near the mouth of Tybee
Creek. Several old chimneys had been torn down; the top of the ridge
had been leveled; brush and trees had been removed; and there were dark
objects visible that looked as though they might be guns.
While Olmstead and his officers discussed these ominous signs, they saw
a small boat put out from the shore of Tybee under a flag of truce and
head up the South Channel. Word spread quickly through the fort and men
swarmed up to the parapet to watch. Soon the small boat landed at the
south wharf. It brought Lt. J. H. Wilson, of the Topographical
Engineers, to Cockspur Island with a formal demand to surrender.
Colonel Olmstead retired to his quarters, where, after a brief time, he
composed his reply:
Sir, I have to acknowledge receipt of your communication of this
date, demanding the unconditional surrender of Fort Pulaski.
In reply I can only say, that I am here to defend the Fort, not to
surrender it.
Now that the time had come to fight, the men experienced a great sense
of relief. They joked and laughed among themselves as they cleaned up
the parade ground, carried ammunition to the guns, and prepared for
action.
At 10 minutes past 8 o’clock a single 13-inch mortar shell rose from
Battery Halleck with a muffled roar. It traveled slowly in a high arc
over the fort and exploded in the air beyond. The second mortar shell,
from Battery Stanton, fell short, exploding in the marsh east of the
fort. And now the line of fire rolled along Tybee Beach, extending
itself to right and left as battery after battery unmasked mortars,
guns, and columbiads.
For some minutes Pulaski was silent; then, four casemate guns were
fired in rapid succession. Almost immediately the guns on the barbette
joined in the action directing their fire toward the rifle batteries at
King’s Landing on Tybee Island.
The first shots on both sides went wide of their marks as the gunners
attempted to box their targets. One of the barbette guns of the fort
recoiled completely off its chassis, while similar accidents on Tybee
put four 10-inch columbiads out of the fight. Despite these early
mishaps, the fire from each side was soon rapid and increasingly
accurate.
Early in the day the men in the fort learned that they had little to
fear from the Federal mortars. Most of the 10-inch and 13-inch mortar
shells exploded high in the air or fell outside. The few that dropped
on the parade buried themselves in the ground and, on exploding, threw
up harmless geysers of mud. Whenever a ponderous solid shot from a
columbiad landed squarely on the wall, however, the whole fort quivered
and shook. About 2 hours after the fight began, one of these solid
shots entered an embrasure and dismounted the casemate gun. Several
members of the gun crew were wounded, one so severely that it was
necessary to amputate his arm immediately. At 11 o’clock the halyards
on the flag pole were cut by a fragment of shell and the flag swooped
down within the fort. Lt. Christopher Hussey of the Montgomery Guards
and Pvt. John Latham of the German Volunteers sprang upon the parapet
and carried the flag under fire to the northeast angle where they
raised it again on the ramrod of a cannon.
At noon observers on Tybee counted 47 scars on the south flank,
pancoupe, and southeast face of the fort, and it was already obvious
that several of the embrasures were considerably enlarged. During the
afternoon the fire slackened on both sides, and after sunset not more
than 7 or 8 shells an hour were thrown until daylight the next morning.
At the end of the day to observers on Tybee, the fort, notwithstanding
its dents and scars, looked nearly as solid and capable of resistance
as when fire was opened in the morning. There was a general feeling
among the Union soldiers that the day’s work had not greatly hastened
the surrender. The mortars had proved a disappointment and the effect
of the breaching fire could not be definitely determined. Although
there had been many narrow escapes, no one had been hurt in the Federal
batteries.
Had Gillmore been able to inspect the fort at the end of the first day,
he would have had reason to rejoice. The place was in shambles. Nearly
all of the barbette guns and mortars bearing upon Tybee had been
dismounted and only two of the five casemate guns were in order. At the
southeast angle, the whole wall from the crest of the parapet to the
moat was flaked away to a depth of from 2 to 4 feet.
_Surrender_
On Friday morning, at daylight, the bombardment reopened with fresh
vigor on both sides. Pulaski had repaired some of her guns during the
night and now directed her barbette fire with considerable precision
and rapidity. From Tybee, Gillmore’s gunners resumed the work of
breaching with determination, and the effect was almost immediately
apparent in the enlargement of the two embrasures on the left of the
southeast face of the fort. Pulaski’s fire was far less accurate than
that of the Federals. The batteries on Tybee were nearly all masked
behind a low sand ridge and were also protected by heavy sandbag
revetments. Most of the Confederate shot and shell buried themselves in
the beach or traveled completely over the Federal batteries and
trenches. About 9 o’clock the besiegers received their only casualty. A
solid shot from Pulaski entered a gun embrasure in Battery McClellan
striking a private soldier and wounded him so severely that he died
soon after.
During the morning, the naval gunboat, _Norwich_, began to fire against
the northeast face of the fort, but the range was too great and her
shots struck only glancing blows on the brick walls. A battery on Long
Island opened up at long range from the west, and shots were landing on
the south wall from guns located on a barge in Tybee Creek.
[Illustration: _Mortar Battery Stanton in action, April 10, 1862._
Sketch by W. T. Crane in Supplement to _Frank Leslie’s Illustrated
Weekly_, May 3, 1862.]
At noon, a considerable part of the Federal fire was directed against
the guns on the ramparts of the fort and within half an hour these guns
were silenced. By now, two great holes had been opened through the
walls and the inside of the fort was visible from Tybee. The interior
arches had been laid bare, and a barbette gun on the parapet was
tottering, ready to fall. It was plain that the whole east angle would
soon be in ruins. General Benham gave orders to prepare to take Fort
Pulaski by direct assault.
At the fort, when all men were ordered from the ramparts to allow the
guns to cool, Pvt. L. W. Landershine thought that “things looked blue.”
One man had been mortally wounded, another had had his foot taken off
by the recoil of a gun, and a dozen others had been struck by fragments
of shell. Projectiles from the rifle batteries were passing completely
through the breach, sweeping across the parade, and striking against
the walls of the north magazine in which 40,000 pounds of black powder
was stored.
The moment had come for Olmstead to make a decision. There were only
two courses open. He could fight on against overwhelming odds, or he
could admit defeat. It must have been a difficult choice for the
gallant 25-year-old colonel to make. Impressed by the utter
hopelessness of the situation and believing the lives of the garrison
to be his next care, he gave the order for surrender.
Says Private Landershine, who was at this time discussing the state of
affairs with his comrades, “About 2-12 p. m. I seen Col. Olmstead and
Capt. Sims go past with a rammer and a sheet, we all knew that it was
over with us and we would have to give up.”
The Confederate flag was lowered half way and a final gun was fired
from a casemate. Then the flag was hauled down and the white sheet took
its place. An old era in coastal fortifications had come to an end.
On Tybee there was wild rejoicing. Men danced together on the beach,
shook hands, and cheered General Gillmore as he rode along the line. At
King’s Landing, Gillmore embarked on a small boat with his aides. The
passage up the South Channel was rough, the skiff ran aground and was
nearly swamped by the heavy seas. Soaked with the salt tides of the
Savannah, the party landed at Cockspur Island and advanced toward the
fort under a flag of truce. Colonel Olmstead was waiting at the
entrance. He showed the way to his quarters, and, during an hour alone
with General Gillmore, the terms of the capitulation were settled.
After inspecting the fort, the general took leave.
In Colonel Olmstead’s quarters by the half-light of candles, the
officers of the fort gave up their swords to General Hunter’s
representative, Maj. Charles G. Halpine. The weapons were laid on a
table, and each officer, according to his rank, advanced in turn,
mentioned his name and title, and spoke a few words appropriate to the
occasion. Said Colonel Olmstead, “I yield my sword, but I trust I have
not disgraced it.”
The men of the garrison were formed by companies on the parade, stacked
their arms, and marched to quarters for the night. The Stars and
Stripes was then raised over the ramparts, and Pulaski again became
part of the possessions, as well as the property, of the Union.
Terms of the surrender were unconditional.
_Significance of the Siege_
In its relation to the total strategy of the Civil War, the reduction
of Fort Pulaski was important. The blockade directed against the South
was materially strengthened by the acquisition of this fortress in the
mouth of the Savannah River. After the surrender, Northern troops
occupied the fort and commanded the entrance to the principal port of
Georgia. It thus served as one of the many pincers that throttled the
economic life of the South.
When viewed in larger perspective, however, an even greater
significance may be attached to the battle for the once-great fort.
“The result of this bombardment,” General Hunter declared in his report
to the Secretary of War, “must cause a change in the construction of
fortifications as radical as that foreshadowed in naval architecture by
the conflict between the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_. No works of stone or
brick can resist the impact of rifled artillery of heavy calibre.”
Subsequent events verified this prophetic statement, and the Fort
Pulaski incident may be considered one of the many mileposts in
history. The strategy that had guided military experts had to be
revised to meet the threat of a new weapon of war, and Fort Pulaski,
because of the consequent changes, has become an interesting relic of
another age.
In the 2 days of battle, 5,275 shot and shell were fired against the
fort, but the breach through the walls was largely the result of three
guns—two 84-pounder and one 64-pounder James rifles. Solid projectiles
from these guns at a distance of 1,640 yards penetrated the brickwork
from 20 to 25 inches with shattering lateral effect. Shots from the
other rifles were erratic in flight—some wabbling, some turning
end-over-end—and did little damage when they slammed into the wall of
the fort. Explosive shells from the rifles also played an important
part in reducing the work.
The guns and mortars in the Federal batteries were served by
detachments from the 7th Connecticut Volunteers, the 3rd Rhode Island
Volunteer Artillery, the 46th New York State Volunteers, and the 8th
Maine Volunteers. On the second day of the bombardment 100 sailors from
the frigate _Wabash_ manned four of the 30-pounder Parrott rifles in
Battery Sigel. The accuracy of fire achieved by the gunners in the
2-day battle is remarkable in view of the fact that none of them,
except the sailors, had had previous experience in firing.
[Illustration: _Third Rhode Island Artillery at Fort Pulaski._ From
_The Photographic History of the Civil War_.]
The quick reduction of Fort Pulaski took the world by surprise, and,
until the details of the battle were available, many people regarded
the surrender with suspicion. In the circumstances, however, Olmstead’s
decision was wise. Nothing but glory could have been obtained by
prolonging the battle, and many additional lives might have been lost.
When the Confederates gave up Tybee Island, they abandoned Pulaski to
its fate, for they presented the Union forces with the only possible
battery sites from which the fort could have been reduced. When
Olmstead raised the white flag, the Federals were already preparing an
assault, and within 24 hours they could have thrown more than 10,000
troops against the fort. Opposed by such odds, the handful of men on
Cockspur, no matter how brave they might have been, could have staged
but a brief and pointless resistance.
Pulaski’s captured garrison was sent North to Governor’s Island in New
York Harbor, where the officers were confined in Fort Columbus; the
men, in Castle Williams. Three months later the officers were
transferred to Johnson’s Island near Sandusky, Ohio, and the men, to
Fort Delaware. Many of the prisoners died of pneumonia or typhoid fever
and a considerable number of the privates, because of family
connections in the Northern States or lack of sympathy with the
Confederate cause, took the oath of allegiance to the United States. In
August, most of the men were exchanged at Aiken’s Landing on the James
River, 12 miles from Richmond, Va., and were soon back in Savannah. The
officers were exchanged in September at Vicksburg, Miss.
[Illustration: _Review of the 48th New York Volunteers on Fort Pulaski
parade ground._ From _History of the 48th Regiment New York Volunteers
in the War for the Union, 1861-1865_.]
The honor of being the first Federal troops to garrison Fort Pulaski
after the surrender was given to the 7th Connecticut Regiment, one
company of the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, and a detachment of
the Volunteer Engineers. On June 1 the 7th Connecticut was relieved by
the 48th New York, which remained on Cockspur until May 31, 1863. The
so-called honor of garrison duty was tempered with hard work, for,
during the months following the battle, the troops were detailed to
repair the damage caused by the bombardment. The batteries on Tybee
Island were dismantled and some of the guns were added to the armament
of the fort. To ease the tedium of life on a small island, the 48th New
York organized a baseball team, a band, and a dramatic association, and
the wives of some of the officers came to live on Cockspur.
[Illustration: “_No works of stone or brick can resist the impact of
rifled artillery of heavy calibre._” From _The Photographic History of
the Civil War_.]
The war continued actively on other fronts, slowly turning against the
South. Weeks, months, and years passed. In June 1863 Pulaski’s garrison
was reduced to a holding force. Great battles were fought
elsewhere—Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Kennesaw
Mountain. In September 1864, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman took Atlanta
after a long and bloody siege and prepared to march to Savannah through
the breadbasket of the Confederate States.
“_The Immortal Six Hundred_”
Late in October 1864, Fort Pulaski became involved in one of the most
barbaric episodes of the Civil War when more than 500 prisoners of
war—Confederate officers of rank from lieutenant to lieutenant
colonel—were brought to Cockspur from a stockade on Morris Island in
Charleston Harbor. These officers, captured in battle and representing
every Southern State and the border States of Missouri, Maryland, and
Kentucky, were the victims of a cruel policy of retaliation and are
known in Southern history as “The Immortal Six Hundred.”
The dismal story began at Charleston when Confederate Gen. Samuel
Jones, in an attempt to lift the bombardment of that city, adopted a
dangerous stratagem of using prisoners of war as a shield. On June 13,
1864, Jones notified Union Gen. J. G. Foster, Commandant of the
Department of the South, that 5 generals and 45 field officers of the
U. S. Army had been quartered in a part of the city which for many
months had been exposed night and day to the fire of Federal guns.
Foster immediately retaliated by requesting that 55 Confederate
Officers of equal rank be sent from the prison at Fort Delaware to be
placed in a stockade on Morris Island under the guns of Fort Sumter.
This ugly situation was ended by a general exchange of the officers on
August 3, but on that day Jones placed 600 more Federal officers in the
residential section of Charleston, which was under bombardment. Federal
reaction was prompt. Six hundred additional Confederate officers were
sent down from Fort Delaware and this time they were placed in the
stockade on Morris Island under the guns of Fort Sumter.
What benefit Jones really expected to derive from his strategy is
certainly not clear. There is evidence that he soon regretted the game
he was playing and made every effort possible to have the Federal
officers moved out of Charleston, but, due to the fortunes of war,
Jones was powerless to stop the chain of events he had started. He
could not get rid of his unwelcome guests, and, as General Sherman,
poised for his march through Georgia, threatened the security of the
Confederate prison at Andersonville, Ga., hundreds of new Federal
prisoners sent from that place began to arrive in Charleston every day.
In October, Fate intervened. Yellow fever, which had been smoldering in
Charleston for many weeks, became epidemic, and the acute danger from
this source gave Jones the excuse to remove the prisoners without
authority from his superiors. He sent the officers to Columbia and the
men to Florence. On learning of this move, Foster ordered the
Confederate prisoners from Morris Island to Fort Pulaski.
When the “Immortal Six Hundred” arrived at Cockspur Island, they
presented a forlorn picture. Uniforms in tatters, barefooted, suffering
from diarrhea and hacking coughs, their ranks had already been reduced
to 520. Forty-nine were in hospitals, 4 had escaped, 2 had been
exchanged, and 2 had taken the oath of allegiance. Six were in a
convict prison on Hilton Head Island for attempted escape, 13 were
unaccounted for, and 4 were buried in the sands of Morris Island.
At Fort Pulaski, Col. Philip P. Brown, Jr., commandant of the post,
greeted the prisoners and promised to make the fort the model military
prison of the United States. He said that he had already requisitioned
blankets and clothing, full army rations, and plenty of fuel.
Colonel Brown, 157th New York Volunteers, was a completely humane man
and won the respect of his Confederate prisoners, but he could not
carry out the promises he had made. His requisitions were ignored. In
consequence, he could issue neither blankets nor clothing. Out of his
garrison supplies he fed the prisoners as well as he could, but fuel on
Cockspur was scarce and fires in the cookstoves could be lighted but
once a day. When the weather turned cold there was neither wood nor
coal to heat the prison casemates. Because of his attitude of humanity,
Brown drew upon himself the censure of his commanding general.
On December 15, Brown was ordered to impose a starvation ration
composed of one-quarter pound of bread, 10 ounces of cornmeal, and
one-half pint of pickles daily, and 1 ounce of salt every 5 days. Under
this new order prisoners were permitted to secure additional food from
sutlers, but since they had no money and were not allowed to receive
funds from the Confederate States, they could purchase no food.
For 43 days in the coldest months of an unusually severe winter, the
prisoners at Pulaski subsisted on this cornmeal and pickle diet. Cats
and dogs that strayed through the prison bars were immediately cooked
and eaten. But day by day the men grew weaker. At night, with no
blankets and no warming fires, they had to keep moving about or freeze.
By mid-January 1865, scurvy began to take its toll.
Meanwhile, Savannah had surrendered to General Sherman, and as a result
the Federal forces in the far South were entirely reorganized. On
January 21, Fort Pulaski became a part of the District of Savannah
under the command of Bvt. Maj. Gen. Cuvier Grover, U. S. Volunteers,
and, on January 27, following an inspection by Grover’s medical
director, Pulaski’s prisoners were put back on full rations. This
timely action saved the lives of many of the men. On March 5 the long
ordeal was ended. Four hundred and sixty-five survivors of the original
“Six Hundred” were returned to Fort Delaware.
[Illustration: =_Prisoners’ newspaper, Fort Pulaski, March 2, 1865._=
Courtesy Mrs. Irving McKesson.]
_The Last Salute_
Now the actors come on stage for the final curtain in the drama of Fort
Pulaski! Sherman had rested in Savannah and had gone north through the
Carolinas to Bentonville and Durham. Grant had met Lee at Appomattox.
The defenders of Fort Sumter had laid down their arms. The Confederate
armies had been crushed on the battlefields. Gillmore had returned to
command the Department of the South, and the destiny of Fort Pulaski
was again in his hands.
On April 29, 1865, 200 guns were fired from the ramparts of Fort
Pulaski to mark the surrender of General Lee—the end of a great
military career which had begun on Cockspur Island more than 35 years
before.
A few weeks later the conquering forces captured the President of the
Confederate States. In command of the detail which took Mr. Davis was
Brig. Gen. J. H. Wilson, of the Topographical Engineers, who 3 years
before had brought to Fort Pulaski the demand for surrender. Mr. Davis
was captured in middle Georgia and sent down the Savannah River to
Hilton Head Island for transport to Fortress Monroe. Accused of
complicity in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and under orders to
be treated as a dangerous criminal, the Confederate president spent his
last night in Georgia aboard ship in the lee of Cockspur Island. Next
morning as he was brought to Hilton Head, Negroes, lining the shores of
the islands, chanted “We’ll hang Jeff Davis to the sour apple tree!”
To the grim fort on Cockspur Island were brought leaders of the
Confederacy, some to remain many months in prison, while an angry
nation sought the illusive satisfaction of vengeance. In the list of
distinguished prisoners were 3 cabinet officers: Secretary of State
Robert M. T. Hunter, Secretary of the Treasury George A. Trenholm, and
Secretary of War James A. Seddon, as well as Assistant Secretary of War
John A. Campbell. In addition, there were 3 State governors, Andrew G.
Magrath of South Carolina, Andrew B. Moore of Alabama, and Alexander K.
Allison of Florida; 1 senator, David L. Yulee of Florida; and Brig.
Gen. Hugh W. Mercer, who as colonel of the 1st Regiment of Georgia had
once been in command of Fort Pulaski.
The Confederacy had been defeated and the streets of Savannah were
patrolled by blue-clad soldiers, but the spirit of the men and women,
who more than 4 years before had demanded the seizure of Fort Pulaski,
was still unbroken. The stores were all open. Business of every sort
progressed precisely as usual. The streets were filled with native
citizens, dressed somewhat antiquely, but giving no sign of suffering.
A smart sailor from a Federal gunboat summed up the scene, “Hell,” he
said, “this town isn’t dead; it’s wound up and running.” “It was the
rebel Savannah unchanged,” wrote Whitelaw Reid, the famous war
correspondent.
_Cockspur Island After 1865_
With the return of peace, the Corps of Engineers under the direction of
General Gillmore undertook to modernize and strengthen Fort Pulaski.
Between the years 1869 and 1872, they remodeled the demilune,
constructing underground magazines and passageways and emplacements for
heavy guns. Major changes were also planned for the main fortification,
but, after digging a huge excavation in the north end of the parade
ground and laying massive concrete piers, the job was abandoned.
Proposals were already under consideration for a new coast artillery
post on Tybee Island, which would take the place of Fort Pulaski.
After 1872 no further active military use of the fort was ever made,
except briefly during the Spanish-American War when a small force was
garrisoned there to man the guns that had been installed in the
demilune and at Battery Horace Hambright, on the north shore of the
island, and to operate the controls for electric mines in the mouth of
the Savannah River. For many years the only inhabitants of the fort
were an ordnance sergeant and a lightkeeper. After the great hurricane
of 1891, when the sea rose 5 feet over the parade ground, a 2-story
house for the lightkeeper was erected on the top of the fort.
In the first years of the 20th century, Fort Pulaski and the eastern
part of Cockspur Island were totally abandoned. The moat around the
fort and demilune filled with mud from the river; the tides swept over
the neglected dikes and flooded the low-lying marshes. The parade
ground became a veritable jungle and hundreds of snakes made their
homes in the innumerable crevices in the fort’s masonry. Infrequent
parties of zealous hunters and hardy pilgrims, willing to wade through
the soft marsh, were the only visitors.
[Illustration: _Abandoned and desolate._ Photo by Geoffrey King, 1925.]
Decontamination facilities to receive German prisoners of war were
prepared in 1918 at the U. S. Quarantine Station on the west end of
Cockspur Island, but the war ended before this installation was put to
use.
Meanwhile, the War Department took the first step toward the
preservation of Fort Pulaski, announcing on July 17, 1915, that this
fortification had been selected to be a national monument under the
American Antiquities Act. Further action was delayed by World War I. In
1918, Col. John Millis, District Engineer at Savannah, visited Fort
Pulaski and was so impressed by the magnificence of the ruin that he
recommended immediate preservation. The next district engineer, Col. F.
W. Alstaetter, was equally interested in the project, and, largely
through his efforts, the Savannah Board of Trade and other
organizations began to seek national monument status for the fort. On
January 7, 1924, Representative Charles G. Edwards, 1st District of
Georgia, introduced a bill in Congress to bring about this desired
result. The efforts of these individuals and organizations were
rewarded on October 15, 1924, when Fort Pulaski was made a national
monument by proclamation of President Calvin Coolidge.
The fort remained in desolate condition, however, until 1933 when the
national monument was transferred by the War Department to the
Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service began the
development of the area.
The plan adopted in the restoration of Fort Pulaski was not to
reproduce any one definite period in the history of the fortification,
but rather to protect the structure from further deterioration by
making essential repairs and to restore only where necessary to
illustrate the use and history of certain features of the fort.
_Fort Pulaski during and after restoration
by the National Park Service._
[Illustration: _The Moat._]
[Illustration: _The Moat._]
[Illustration: _The parapet._]
[Illustration: _The parapet._]
[Illustration: _The quarters._]
[Illustration: _The quarters._]
[Illustration: _The sally port._]
Original plans and specifications were available in the files of the
War Department for practically all of the items of restoration and
repair work undertaken. The restoration of the fort and the development
of the national monument were accomplished with funds provided by the
Public Works Administration and through the labor of the Civilian
Conservation Corps. In 1938, Cockspur Island was joined to McQueens
Island by the construction of a bridge across the South Channel of the
Savannah River. From 1942 to 1947 the fort was closed to the public,
when Cockspur Island, as the site of a Navy Section Base, again became
an active part of the defense system of the United States.
Fort Pulaski is a large-scale outdoor exhibit. The main structure,
together with outlying works, including demilune, drawbridges, ditches,
and dikes, is a fine example of past military architecture. As a vivid
reminder of past events it presents an important phase of our great
national heritage.
[Illustration: FORT PULASKI SELF-GUIDED TOUR PLAN]
_Guide to the Area_
Fort Pulaski, resembling a medieval castle, is surrounded by a wide
moat, with two drawbridges, and a rear fortification known as a
demilune. After crossing the outer drawbridge, a short walk through the
demilune will bring you to the second drawbridge and the sally port or
only entrance into the main fortification.
Numbered markers have been placed at significant points of interest.
These markers correspond with the numbers of the text below and with
those shown on the guide map. They should be followed in consecutive
order.
1. THE SALLY PORT. The fort entrance is equipped with many devices for
last-ditch defense. The massive drawbridge, weighing several tons, is
raised by winches and counterweights which may be seen in the rooms on
either side of the entrance. As the drawbridge rises, a strong wooden
grill, called the portcullis, drops through a slot in the granite
lintel overhead. The heart-pine doors are studded with iron bolts to
make it difficult to chop through them with axes. Within the sally port
are two recesses for the protection of guards and 10 slits, or
loopholes, through the side walls for small arms fire. In time of great
danger, the inner doors could also be shut and barred.
2. THE GORGE. The western, or rear, section of Fort Pulaski is known as
the gorge (“throat”) because it contains the sally port, or entrance of
the fort. The living quarters are also in the gorge. Enlisted men
occupied the barracks rooms, or casemates, to the north of the
entrance; officers were quartered in the casemates to the south of the
entrance. The word casemate means a bomb-proof shelter. Each of the
arched chambers surrounding the parade ground is a casemate. During the
Civil War, when a large number of troops was stationed at Fort Pulaski,
most of the enlisted men were quartered in the casemated gun galleries
or in tents. Originally, all of the casemates were closed in with
wooden fronts to provide shelter from rain and cold. The parade ground,
on which the men exercised and drilled, is 2½ acres in extent. The
covered veranda, which runs the length of the gorge, is an unusual
feature in fort architecture.
3. BARRACKS ROOMS. When Georgia troops seized Fort Pulaski in 1861, the
barracks rooms were unfurnished. The Confederates built triple-decker
bunks against the walls and filled mattress covers with hay from the
parade ground. They brought chairs, tables, and camp cots from their
homes in Savannah. After the surrender, Federal troops added many items
of furniture obtained by raiding plantations along the coast. The rooms
were lighted by candles, coal-oil lanterns, and lamps. The large
fireplace in each room was equipped with a crane and other devices for
cooking, but both Confederate and Union soldiers did most of their
cooking on field ranges. While walking through the barracks rooms, note
how the loopholes in the rear wall are variously angled to give a wide
range of fire.
4. THE NORTH MAGAZINE. On the second day of the bombardment Federal
projectiles, exploding near the entrance to this powder magazine,
threatened to blow up the Confederates with their own powder. The
interior walls of the magazine are from 12 to 15 feet thick.
5. THE NORTHWEST BASTION. A bastion is a part of a fort which extends
out from the main wall, with embrasures and loopholes to permit lateral
fire along the walls. Fort Pulaski had only demibastions, or half
bastions, as they extend out only in one direction and give protection
to only one wall. The rectangular openings through the outer walls of
the fort are embrasures to permit the firing of cannon. The embrasures
in the bastions are angled to bring a crossfire on the main drawbridge
and on the point of the demilune. The slot under each embrasure was to
receive the tongue of a gun carriage which was then held in place by a
large iron pin dropped through the round hole in the floor of the
embrasure. The openings in the ceiling above the embrasures are smoke
vents. The circular grooves in the floor originally held iron tracks on
which the wheels of the gun carriages turned. The slots and grilled
trapdoors in the floors of the casemates are to provide ventilation
under the floors. The round pegs in the floor cover iron spikes that
hold the planks in place and originally served to reduce the hazard of
a powder explosion when the guns were in use. Hobnails in soldiers’
boots on contact with exposed spikes might have resulted in a dangerous
shower of sparks.
6. THE GUN GALLERIES. The casemated gun galleries, which surround the
parade ground on four sides and give to Fort Pulaski the atmosphere of
a cloistered monastery, contain fine examples of brick masonry. The
arches were constructed over wooden forms, each brick being hand cut to
fit its special place. The joints were mortared from above and, when
the arches were firm and strong, the wooden forms were removed.
7. THE WATER SYSTEM. Under the brick pavements, which replace the
wooden floors in the two center casemates of each gallery, are water
cisterns. There are 10 of these cisterns, or storage tanks, in the
fort, each capable of holding 20,000 gallons of water. During
rainstorms, water falling on the top of the fort seeps through about 3
feet of earth and a foot of oyster shell until it reaches the
lead-covered brick roof, whence it is diverted through pipes to the
cisterns. Overflow water from the roof emerges through weep holes
between the arches high on the walls facing the parade ground.
8. THE TERREPLEIN. The flat surface on top of the rampart of the fort
is called the terreplein and contains brick and granite platforms for
mounting guns. From this high level, guns had a range of fire greater
than those mounted in the casemates below. The breast-high parapet on
the outer edge of the terreplein was for the protection of both guns
and gun crews. The recesses in the parapet wall were to allow gun
carriages to swing freely.
9. TERREPLEIN, EAST ANGLE. From this point a good view may be obtained
of the shore of Tybee Island, from which the fort was bombarded. The
two batteries containing the 10 James and Parrott rifled guns, which
did the principal damage to the fort, were located on the western point
of Tybee just north of the present highway bridge. The 9 other
batteries of mortars and siege guns were at various places along the
shore for 2 miles in the direction of the lighthouse. The small brick
lighthouse on Cockspur Point was built about 1840 and therefore was a
feature of the landscape at the time of the bombardment.
10. THE PRISON. From October 23, 1864, to March 4, 1865, the northeast,
southeast, and part of the south casemates of Fort Pulaski were used as
a military prison.
11. THE BREACH. In three casemates at the southeast angle there are
solid brick walls without embrasures. These walls were constructed in
1862, after the surrender, by troops of the 48th New York Volunteers to
close the breach, or opening, made by the Federal shot and shell during
the bombardment.
12. THE SOUTHWEST BASTION. The interior of the southwest bastion was
destroyed by fire in 1893. This part of the fort has been left
unrestored to show details of the foundation construction. All arches
are completed beneath the floor level and are laid on a platform of
yellow pine timbers, called grillage. The grillage in turn is supported
by yellow pine piles which are driven deep into the mud of Cockspur
Island.
13. HEADQUARTERS (SURRENDER ROOM). The surrender of Fort Pulaski was
executed in the quarters of Col. Charles H. Olmstead, Confederate
commander. In 1925 a lightning fire destroyed the officers’ quarters.
This room was restored in 1935.
14. CISTERN ROOM. This room, also destroyed in the 1925 fire, has been
left unrestored to show construction details. The cylindrical brick
structure below floor level is the top of a water cistern.
15. BOTTLE COLLECTION. Nearly 1,000 bottles were found in the Fort
Pulaski moat when the mud was cleaned out in 1935. These bottles had
been thrown into the moat by workmen building the fort and by
Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War. A part of the
collection is shown in this room.
16. THE MOAT. The wet ditch, or moat, which completely surrounds the
main fortification and the demilune, varies in width from 30 to 48
feet. It has an average depth of 7 feet. The water, brought through a
canal from the South Channel of the Savannah River, is controlled
through a series of tide gates. Fish, crabs, shrimp, oysters, and
turtles live in the moat.
17. THE DEMILUNE. The outwork often found at the rear of a large
fortification was originally constructed in a half-moon shape—hence
the name demilune. The principal earthworks in the demilune were built
in 1869, after the Civil War, and contain four powder magazines and
passageways connecting gun emplacements. The detached mound of earth
near the entrance to the demilune was erected in 1893 to protect an
underground chamber in which were placed the controls for electric
mines in the main channel of the Savannah River. This room is kept
locked today as it contains a large and dangerous electric transformer.
18. DAMAGED WALL. Evidence of the bombardment can best be seen from the
outside of the fort. The breach through the southeast angle was
repaired in 1862 with a bright-red brick, which, in contrast to the
original brown brick, shows the area of the damage wrought by the siege
guns. The southeastern wall facing Tybee is pock-marked by shell hits,
and many of the balls and projectiles are still embedded in the
brickwork.
[Illustration: _The damaged wall._]
19. THE CEMETERY. On the glacis, or north bank of the demilune moat, a
small cemetery was established when the fort was under construction.
Here, during the Civil War, both Confederate and Union soldiers were
temporarily buried. The 8-inch columbiad, which marks the site, was a
Confederate gun damaged in the bombardment.
20. THE WAVING GIRL. Just after the Civil War a girl was born on
Cockspur Island in the former quarters of the engineer officers. The
child was named Florence Martus, and her father was an ordnance
sergeant at Fort Pulaski. From the stone pier on the north shore of
Cockspur Island young Florence first saw the passing ships going with
cargoes to the farthest corners of the earth. The small child was
fascinated by these gay ships and waved her handkerchief. Sailors on
the ships waved back. A few years later, the child, then in her ’teens,
went to live with her brother, a light keeper, in a white cottage close
by the riverbank, about 5 miles up river from Fort Pulaski. From this
time on she waved at every ship that passed—a table cloth or towel by
day, a lantern by night. For more than 44 years she never missed a
ship, and each ship, as it passed, returned her salute with three
blasts of the whistle. Many stories were told of this small girl, who
finally grew to be a white-haired old lady. These legends of the Waving
Girl of Savannah are known in all the seas where ships have sailed.
[Illustration: _John Wesley Memorial erected in 1951 by the Georgia
Society, Colonial Dames of America, to commemorate the landing of
Wesley on Cockspur Island, February 6, 1736._]
_How to Reach the Monument_
Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, is
15 miles east of Savannah, Ga., and may be reached from that city by
way of U. S. 80 (Tybee Highway). The entrance to the monument is on
McQueens Island at U. S. 80. Cockspur Island is connected by a short
road and a concrete bridge across the South Channel of the Savannah
River.
[Illustration: _U. S. 80 through Fort Pulaski National Monument._]
_Administration_
Fort Pulaski National Monument is administered by the National Park
Service of the United States Department of the Interior. Communications
should be addressed to the Superintendent, Fort Pulaski National
Monument, Box 204, Savannah Beach, Ga.
_About Your Visit_
You may visit Fort Pulaski daily, except Christmas, from 8:30 a. m. to
5:30 p. m. Information may be obtained from attendants on duty inside
the fort, and brief lectures are given at frequent intervals by the
historian. A nominal admission charge is made at the fort entrance.
Children under 12 years of age are admitted free when accompanied by
adults assuming responsibility for their safety and orderly conduct.
Organized groups of school children between the ages of 12 and 18 are
also admitted free.
_Related Areas_
Other seacoast fortifications in the National Park System are: Castle
Clinton National Monument, in New York Harbor; Fort McHenry National
Monument and Historic Shrine, at Baltimore, Md.; Fort Sumter National
Monument, in Charleston Harbor, S. C.; Fort Frederica National
Monument, Ga.; Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National
Monuments, at St. Augustine, Fla.; Fort Jefferson National Monument, in
the Dry Tortugas Islands, about 68 miles from Key West, Fla.; and San
Juan National Historic Site, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1958 O—469169
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Vicksburg (No. 21), 25 cents
Yorktown (No. 14), 25 cents
Transcriber’s Note
Typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected without
mention.
Spellings in quoted phrases have been maintained as originally
presented.
Minor adjustments to illustration captions have been made to reflect
relative position in an e-book.
Italicized phrases are presented by surrounding the text with
_underscores_.
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