With the sun barely above Georgia’s coast, we eased out of Savannah, Georgia onto U.S. Highway 80 toward the Atlantic Ocean just off the United States’ southeastern seaboard, its two lanes barely above the salt marshes it carried us across.
The sea breezes rustled the tall grasses into an undulating dance all the way to the horizon.
The flooded landscape, crisscrossed by a dozen interconnecting channels twisting their way to the sea, was broken only by the occasional fishing shack sitting high above the grasses on its gray, weathered stilts.
A yellow, diamond-shaped symbol warning us of a turtle crossing brought a smile to our faces.
The Savannah River flanked the highway on its north side, separating us from Cockspur Island, where, in the distance, a dull red mass rose above the landscape, breaking the skyline.
We slowed as a road sign directed us to our destination, Fort Pulaski National Monument.
We pulled in behind two other early risers at the admission gate, awaiting the opening of the park.
Shortly, a small SUV, traveling from the direction of the fort, pulled behind the guard shack and a ranger emerged, placing her Smoky Bear campaign hat jauntily upon her head.
We quickly paid our admission and headed across the bridge toward one of Georgia’s barrier islands and a great architectural survivor of America’s Civil War.
After we parked, we took advantage of the restrooms and entered the visitor center to gain our bearings.
Fort Pulaski National Monument
A massive five-sided edifice, Fort Pulaski was constructed in the 1830s and 1840s on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River.
Built to protect the city of Savannah from naval attack, the fort came under siege by Union forces in early 1862 and was ultimately captured on April 11.
I’ve been a Civil War enthusiast since I was a young lad. The clash of opposing armies as they crisscrossed the American landscape fired a child’s imagination.
However, not all battles were fluid affairs. During the course of the American Civil War, hundreds of fortifications were manned, armed, and utilized by both sides.
Today, a few can still be visited. So, on a recent trip to the Georgia coast with my very patient wife in tow, I had sought out the fort named after a Polish cavalry officer of the American Revolution just 18 miles from Savannah, Georgia.
The visitor center has a compact museum providing some rich history of the fort.
A 20-minute film titled “The Battle for Fort Pulaski” was not cooperating on the day of our visit, so it went unseen.
On the other hand, several display cases provided some insight into the construction, history, and battle of the fort.
Afterward we crossed an actual drawbridge, which carried us over a watery moat that reminded us of something out of a King Arthur tale and into the fort.
It’s massive!
The parade ground alone encompasses 2 acres. The walls are immense structures and it was difficult to comprehend that they were built by hand. Much of it by enslaved hands.
The fort was actually built due to the continued threat of Great Britain.
One of dozens of forts built along the east coast of the United States in the wake of the War of 1812, during which the British had managed to make their way into Washington, D.C., and set the White House ablaze.
The security of the Port of Savannah and, thus, the Savannah River were deemed as essential.
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Impenetrable Walls
Begun in 1829, it took 18 years to complete the construction of the five-sided Fort Pulaski.
An estimated twenty-five million bricks were used. Two types were used: strong red bricks brought in by ship, and local Savannah gray bricks manufactured at the Hermitage Plantation, where enslaved men, women, and children made the bricks.
A few bricks still show the fingerprints and handprints of their makers.
The walls tower 22 feet above the water-filled moat that surrounds it and average between five and eleven feet thick of solid brick.
A triangular-shaped island outside the fort houses underground chambers for storing gunpowder. The fort pretty much seemed impassable to any foe willing to attempt it.
It was here that Robert E. Lee, the future leader of the Confederate armies, was first assigned, as an engineer, after graduating from West Point.
The fort was considered by some of the best engineering minds of the time to be impenetrable.
In referring to Fort Pulaski, the United States Chief of Engineers, General Totten, said, “You might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains.”
In the minds of the experts, it could easily withstand a long-range bombardment and shrug off any frontal assault.
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Exploring The Fort
As I stood in the center of the parade ground and surveyed the massive bastion surrounding me, I certainly could understand the belief.
I overheard a young visitor, part of a school group, exclaim to his companion, “It’s a castle!”
We were free to wander the fort and explore. The grounds easily swallowed up the few early morning visitors.
On more than one occasion, my wife had to come searching for me as I poked my head into the deepest recesses of the fortifications.
Barracks for the enlisted men, officers’ quarters, and the storage areas were built beneath the vaulted chambers of the walls, and are staged to present what life might have been like in 1861.
The single-windowed, dank lodgings seemed quite unappealing.
As we wandered, we came upon fading graffiti on two of the chambers. They were messages painted onto the whitewash covering the red bricks.
Left by members of the Federal occupiers a century and a half before our visit, it suggested that, even during the most trying times, stockade duty must have been boring.
Mounting the steps that led upward, we were rewarded with wonderful views of the surrounding island; 5,365 acres of tidal marshes, mud flats, and forests.
As if to confirm the fort’s reason for being, we watched an ocean freighter inch its way through the river on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Cannons
A park ranger led a small group of students onto the parapet with us.
As he tried to gain their attention, they swarmed around a cannon with a damaged barrel.
Of course, no fort is complete without cannons and there are a wide variety scattered around the walls.
Nearly a dozen enormous, coal-black behemoths representing the best technology of the time are pointed toward the skyline.
Weighing several tons, these guns could fire a 40-lb. projectile over a mile.
The Battle
In 1862, Fort Pulaski was considered invincible. Its 7-1/2-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.
However, the fort was designed at a time when the effective range of smoothbore cannon was maybe a mile. By the time of the war, technology had surpassed the rose-red bricks of Fort Pulaski.
In the spring of 1861, Federals landed on Tybee Island facing Fort Pulaski. These troops erected 11 batteries for mortars and rifled cannon, a design that could throw a shell well over 2 miles.
On April 10, the rifled cannon firing from Tybee Island, to the surprise of many, blasted a hole four feet deep into the seven-and-one-half-foot thick walls of the southeast angle of Fort Pulaski.
By noon the following day, two holes had been opened in the walls, and the Federals could see through them into the interior of the fort.
The breaches also allowed cannon shots from the Federal batteries to pass through the walls directly into the fort. These shots soon began to fall near the fort’s primary powder magazines.
Although the fort returned fire, it was far less effective and had little impact on the Federals.
Soon, Colonel Olmstead, commander of the rebels, realized that all was lost. The white flag was raised over Fort Pulaski. The battle was over.
The fort’s only battle had lasted all of 30 hours. The fort’s surrender closed Savannah as a port. Union troops occupied Fort Pulaski from April 1862 until the end of the Civil War.
I cannot imagine the mindset of the men inside the fort who withstood 30 hours of continuous shelling.
The Immortal Six Hundred
During the course of our exploration, we came upon a section of the fort’s interior that had been enclosed by prison cells.
After occupation, the Federals converted a portion of the casements into a prison.
On October 23, 1864, nearly 600 tired, ill-clothed men arrived at the fort. The emaciated Confederate troops were prisoners of war.
Despite the best intentions of the fort’s command, the prisoners never received sufficient food, blankets, or clothes and thirteen died.
The dead were buried just outside the walls in a small cemetery, which is dedicated to “The Immortal Six Hundred” as the prisoners became known.
The Cockspur Lighthouse
Outside the walls, we walked Lighthouse Trail, a 3/4-mile trek through the marshlands, palmetto palms, and sawgrass while avoiding fire ant mounds and dozens of fiddler crabs.
Overhead, an egret slowly flapped its elongated wings.
At the end of the trail, surrounded by the South Channel of the Savannah River, stood the Cockspur Lighthouse, the smallest lighthouse in Georgia.
Built in 1854, the whitewashed brick tower stands on an islet, often covered by high tide, which is composed of oyster shells and marsh grass.
Returning to the fort, the impact that modern artillery had on the masonry fort became all the more evident.
Much of the damage to the exterior was left visible and never repaired. There are actual shells still embedded in the shattered brick face.
The Fort Becomes A Park
After the war, the antiquated fort was abandoned. The island began its slow onslaught, with trees, shrubs, and various vegetation growing onto and into the fort as it fell into disrepair.
In 1924, it was transferred to the National Park Service, which began the reclamation that eventually provided the monument that we visited.
Our adventure of discovering Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia ended as we traveled back across the bridge. Despite war, hurricanes, and neglect, the brick sentinel serenely sat guard over the small island, awaiting another sunrise and its next visitors.
If You Go
Fort Pulaski National Monument sits 15 miles east of Savannah on Cockspur Island between the Savannah and Wilmington Rivers. From I-95, take exit 94 to US-80 E for a quick 12-mile drive to the site.
Entrance fees are $10.00 per person and are valid for seven consecutive days from the date of purchase.
If you prefer to skip the driving and enjoy a guided experience instead, you can also explore the fort as part of a Tybee Island Day Tour that includes stops at Fort Pulaski, the lighthouse and the pier. It is an easy way to learn more about the region’s coastal history while taking in the scenery.
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