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Battle of Fort Pulaski Information

The Battle of Fort Pulaski was fought April 10–11, 1862, during the American Civil War. Union forces on Tybee Island besieged and captured the Confederate-held Fort Pulaski after 30 hours of bombardment. The battle is important for innovative use of new rifled guns which made existing coastal defenses obsolete.

Fort Pulaski is located on Cockspur Island, Georgia, near the mouth of the Savannah River. In a tidewater of wide delta marshes, the Fort commanded seaward approaches to the City of Savannah. The city was strategically important as a cotton exporting port and railroad center[6] with a state arsenal and a private shipyard. Two southerly estuaries led to the Savannah River behind the fort. Immediately east of Pulaski, and in sight of Hilton Head Island, SC, lay Tybee Island, a barrier island with a lighthouse.

The Union obtained strategic objectives closing Savannah as a port, extending its blockade and aids to navigation down the Atlantic coast. The Confederates lost Fort Pulaski sooner than expected, but they blocked any Union advance on Savannah from seaward, transferred trained troops north to Virginia and west to Tennessee, extended coastal rail connections north out of Savannah and built two ironclads in its shipyards.

Contents

Background

Fort Pulaski under fire April 10–11, 1862. Viewed from northeast, North Channel, Savannah River. Union batteries firing from Tybee Island. Brick thrown into the air is off the southeast corner of the fort by new Parrott Rifle cannon using percussion projectiles. (Leslie's Weekly Magazine)

  • Charles H. Olmstead, Confed. commander, Fort Pulaski

  • Ft. Pulaski Nation'l Monum'nt, SE at upper right (Edibobb)

  • Quincy A. Gillmore, Federal commander, besieging forces

"Department of Georgia"

Fort Pulaski under siege

  • Fort Pulaski plan shows fort outline, parapet, yard, moat, demilune, bridges, swamp.

  • Pulaski’s southeast parapet, barbette guns on south wall in place after capture and repairs.

  • Elevated 8-in. gun used as a mortar. Longer range held besiegers to night construction.

  • Bombproofs of timbers and dirt on interior walls; trenched yard stopped ricochets.

Following the secession of Georgia, volunteer militia seized Fort Pulaski from the Federal government and, with Confederate forces, began repairing and upgrading the armament. In late 1861, the commander, Department of Georgia, General Alexander Robert Lawton would transfer to Richmond. On November 5, General Robert E. Lee assumed command of the newly created "Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida".

Lawton's October report for his Department listed 2,753 men and officers in the environs of Savannah, almost half of the command.[7] First Georgia Regulars had been assigned to Tybee Island. They built a battery on Tybee Island and manned it, along with lookouts along the beach.[8] The Regiment was reassigned to Virginia, departing July 17, 1861.[9] Olmstead’s “First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia”[10] would garrison Fort Pulaski through the Federal siege.[11]

Fort Pulaski was considered invincible with its 7-1/2-foot solid brick walls and reinforcing masonry piers. General Robert E. Lee had earlier surveyed the fort’s defenses with Colonel Olmstead and determined, “they will make it pretty warm for you here with shells, but they cannot breach your walls at that distance." Wide swampy marshes surrounded the fort on all sides and were infested with native alligators. No attacking ship could safely come within effective range, and land batteries could not be placed closer than Tybee Island, one to two miles away.[12] Beyond 700 yards, smoothbore guns and mortars had little chance to break through heavy masonry walls. Beyond 1,000 yards, they had no chance at all. The U.S. Chief of Engineers, General Joseph Gilbert Totten, is quoted as saying, "you might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains."[13] If there were ever to be a successful siege, it would have to starve the garrison into submission.[14]

Fort garrison duty with untrained troops made up for lost time. In May for example, one newspaper correspondent reported that Confederates spent early morning in heavy labor such as mounting heavy guns. Then came an hour and a half drill at the heavy guns with instruction or live fire out a mile or two. The proficiency of each gun crew was tracked in a “target practice” book. Troops were tested on gunnery skills, then dinner at one. The rotating fatigue parties returned to work Officers reviewed infantry tactics, then instructed the men for an hour. Fatigue parties had “recall” at six. Then at “Dress Parade” retreat, the garrison performed infantry drill including combat formation evolutions. Supper followed and afterwards an hour’s recitation of army regulations, taps at nine.[15]

Confederate defense in depth

Lee’s strategic considerations are outlined in his official correspondence as commanding officer of the department from Savannah on November 29 and December 20 to Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin, January 29, to General Samuel Cooper, March 1 to General Gen. James H. Trapier, and March 3 to General Alexander Lawton. When Federal forces first made a lodgment on Tybee Island, the work on Fort Pulaski was progressing slowly, but Lee’s judgment was that “the river cannot be forced”. Old Fort Jackson had been armed, strengthened and “forms an interior barrier”. Savannah’s channel had been blocked. In December, Lee reasoned since the Federals had sunk a stone fleet in the Charleston Harbor, they did not intend to use it. “We must endeavor to be prepared against assaults elsewhere on the Southern coast.” To that end, additional ships were sunk in water approaches that led behind Fort Pulaski. [16]

1855 Navigation Chart to the City of Savannah (red, left) downriver (to the right), "Old Fort Jackson" is at the sharp bend (red, center). Fort Pulaski (red, right) on Cockspur Island and the north shore of Tybee Island is the right land's end of the map[17]

In January, following Tattnall’s three-gunboat attack on seven Federal gunboats on the river, Lee’s assessment was that “there is nothing to prevent their reaching the Savannah River, and we have nothing afloat that can contend against them." Fort Pulaski, a “Third System”, scientifically engineered coastal defense fort, still had at least four months’ provisions. Now, the primary objective became, “we must endeavor to defend the city.” The city’s floating dock was sunk as another river obstruction.[18] In March, Lee passed along War Department orders to begin transferring regiments from Florida to Tennessee to reinstate operations following the “disasters to our arms” there. Georgian troops had been sent to Virginia in July, additional Georgians would be moved to Tennessee also. The Confederate government required a withdrawal from seaboard forces into the interior of South Carolina and Georgia to better secure the breadbasket plantations feeding the armies. In Florida, only the Apalachicola River had to be defended at all costs because Federal gunboats could penetrate so deeply into the Georgia interior.[19]

On Lee’s transfer to Richmond, he detailed urgent defense construction, then he called on Lawton’s “earnest and close attention” to the Federal’s probable approach to the city. “It looks now as if he would take the Savannah River”. Guns located in island batteries were to be removed to the mainland in and around Savannah’s defensive lines. Obstructions in the river above the city were to be set by hands provided by upriver planters in the event of an envelopment by way of Fort McAllister. “Every effort must be made” to retard or prevent further progress of the enemy directly upriver on the Savannah River approaches. “If he attempts to advance by batteries on the marshes or islands, he must be driven back, if possible.” Scouts were ordered out “so as to discover his first lodgment, when they can be broken up.” An additional three-gun battery at MacKay’s Point was not intended to stop federal gunboats in force, but with Tattnall’s gunboat support, they could prevent Federal batteries from being built on Elba Island to threaten Old Fort Jackson.[20]

Operationally, General R. E. Lee headquartered in Savannah as commander of the “Department of the Coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida”. He was returning to the fort that he had helped construct in his early U.S. career. Anticipating Union moves to establish batteries above the Fort, he ordered guns positioned to cover their likely positions.[21]

Savannah's existing Fort Jackson, about three miles downriver from the city, was supplemented with two additional batteries. Defenders built fire barges.[22] Lee first placed a battery at Causton’s Bluff commanding navigable estuaries leading to the Savannah River behind Fort Pulaski. Then he added another battery situated farther upriver on Elba Island, blocking all river approach to Savannah. The Union naval commander, Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont, conducted a reconnaissance of Lee's system of defense upriver. When the commanding military general, Gen. Thomas W. Sherman, insisted on forcing Lee's riverine batteries against Du Pont's recommendation, Thomas Sherman was transferred to the western theater and replaced by General David Hunter.

Confederate scortched earth Federal occupation
  • Tybee Island besiegers; Confederate-burned Tybee Lighthouse in background

The Union fleet conducted explorations among the Atlantic inlets and coastal marshes by shallow draft ships, boats and monitors.[23] But when they came up against earthworks such as Fort McAllister just south of Savannah, their efforts using bombardment alone were fruitless.[24] The Federals would not advance on Savannah until General William T. Sherman’s March from the interior in 1864.[25]

At the time Pulaski was cut off from Savannah in April 1862, the garrison under the command of Colonel Charles H. Olmstead had been reduced from 650 to 385 officers and men. They were organized into five infantry companies and had 48 canons, including ten columbiads, five mortars, and a 4.5-inch (110 mm) Blakely rifle.[26] The Confederate Tybee Island battery had been previously dismantled and abandoned, and their guns relocated to the fort.[27] The fort had been provisioned on January 28 with a six-months supply of food.

In consultation with Lee, Olmstead had distributed armament on the ramparts and in the casements to cover all approaches, and several were placed to cover westerly marshes and Savannah’s North Channel.[28] Confederate marauders burned sea island cotton crops to deny them falling into Federal hands. Navigational aids like the Tybee Lighthouse were dismantled and burned. Reports from the field had Confederate troops setting fires to everything that might be used by advancing Federal troops.[29]

Federal blockade and contact

In August 1861 Secretary of War Cameron had authorized a combined “Expeditionary Corps” of Army and Navy. Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman commanded Army elements, and Flag Officer Samuel Du Pont commanded the Naval Services. The Union forces intended to recapture Fort Pulaski as federal property, to close the port of Savannah to the rebels, and to extend their blockade southward. But first they needed a coaling station for the blockading South Atlantic Squadron. It then could serve as a base for the expedition. The Battle of Port Royal answered the requirement.[30]

Union naval presence

As the Union forces went about taking Port Royal, Commodore Josiah Tattnall, CSN, and his “mosquito fleet” harassed elements of the Union’s South Atlantic Squadron. Over the next few months, Tattnall, an experienced US Navy commander, trained and fought his Confederate squadron into a flexible task force for coastal, amphibious, resupply and riverine operations. With the approach of the Federal expedition on Port Royal, including fifteen warships under the command of Flag Officer Du Pont, the Confederate “Savannah River Squadron” sortied with gunships CSS Savannah (flag), Sampson, Lady Davis and tender Resolute. These four along with the converted slaver-privateer Bonita,[31] met eight of Du Pont’s fifteen US warships on November 5, and were “outgunned and outclassed”.[32]

They withdrew overnight into Skull Creek, Georgia. The next day they sortied again. Under covering fires from Old Savannah engaging nearby heavy Union ships, the Sampson[33] assisted in amphibious operations taking off numbers of the Port Royal garrison. Resolute, returning from delivering dispatches to the City of Savannah, evacuated the garrison at Fort Walker. She then landed at Pope’s Landing, Hilton Head Island, and spiked Confederate guns abandoned there.[34] The Savannah landed a shore party of Marines to support Fort Beauregard under fire from Union warships, but the fort was lost before the reinforcements could arrive. The ship took off the garrison and returned to the City of Savannah for repairs.[35]

After building up facilities on Hilton Head Island, the Federals began preparations for besieging Fort Pulaski. The Union expedition next captured Tybee Island.[36]

British blockade runner

The Union advance on Fort Pulaski began on November 24, 1861. Following reconnaissance that Confederates had abandoned Tybee Island, Flag Officer Du Pont ordered forward an amphibious raid with three gunboats at the Tybee Island Lighthouse.[39] Under a two-hour ship’s bombardment, the Confederate pickets set fire to the lighthouse and withdrew.[40] Commander Christopher Rodgers, USS Flag, led a landing party of sailors and Marines in thirteen surf-boats to occupy the Lighthouse and the Martello tower, and flew the national flag from them. Overnight, a reduced company set false campfires to misdirect the Confederates ashore.[41][42] Two days later commanding Flag Officer Du Pont and general Thomas Sherman made a personal reconnaissance,[43] and on 29 November, General Gillmore, the command’s chief engineering officer, with three companies of the Fourth New Hampshire, took formal possession of the entire island without opposition.[44] The Navy set the logistics train in motion, and by December 20, the Army had sufficient materials for establishing “a permanent possession”.[45]

The last blockade runner to make Savannah was the British steam ship Fingal. Its cargo of arms and munitions reached the entrance to Wassaw Sound at the mouth of the Savannah River on a clear night in mid November, but heavy fog in the early morning masked the ship’s progress across the bar and upriver. Later she made two unsuccessful attempts at escaping the blockade before being converted into an ironclad.[46] Pulaski’s share on ship's manifest was two 24-pounder Blakely rifles and a large consignment of British-made Enfield infantry rifles. As the Union Flag Officer Du Pont sought to close the alternative channels local ships used, he sank stone-filled ships in the Savannah River channel, and stationed gunboats at two southerly estuaries, Warsaw Sound, south of Wilmington Island, and Ossabaw Sound at Skidaway Island.[47]

On November 26 Tattnall’s flag, “Old” CSS Savannah in company with Resolute and Sampson sortied out from under Fort Pulaski’s guns in a “brave but brief” attack on the Union ships outside the bar, driving them out to sea. Tattnall’s squadron withdrew up the Savannah River for refit and two days later, the same three resupplied the Fort with six months provisions, despite “the spirited opposition of Federal ships”. Sampson received considerable damage, returning to patrol the Savannah River only in mid-November the following year.[48]

Siege approaches and bombardment

Map of the siege of Ft. Pulaski. Fort in red, U.S. batteries in grey. Federal batteries upriver on Venus Point (Jones Island) and Bird Island had infantry and gunboat support to cut off Pulaski from Savannah (Virginia Historical Society)

The U.S. siege plan would make military history. Quincy Adams Gillmore was General Thomas Sherman’s chief engineering officer. His professional reading had followed the test records of the experimental rifled gun which the Army had begun testing in 1859. Following a reconnaissance of the ground, he proposed the unconventional plan to reduce Fort Pulaski with mortars and rifled guns.[49] Commanding General Thomas W. Sherman[50] approved the plan, but not the promise of the rifled guns. His endorsement was qualified, believing gunnery effect would be limited, "to shake the walls in a random manner." But the innovative weaponry in the event made his deployed 10,000-man assault force unnecessary.[13]

Two sites for Federal batteries were selected upriver from the fort to cut it off from Savannah. The first was at Point Venus on the northern bank of the North Channel. Confederate Commodore Josiah Tattnall had sunk a stone schooner to obstruct the northward channel connecting the river to the Union-held Port Royal, and he patrolled the river with Confederate gunboats. The Federals had to clear the obstruction on their most direct supply line first; it required three weeks. A camp and supply depot was established on the next island north, Dawfuskie Island.[51]

Tattnall’s gunboat patrols still commanded the lower river around Point Venus, Jones Island. The Confederate naval gunnery required all work of the Federal besiegers to be done at night. Guns had to be pulled by hand through swamp over moveable tram sections, and placed on board-and-bag platforms to avoid sinking into the morass.[52]

The last Confederate supply ship to Fort Pulaski was the small workhorse steamboat Ida. On February 13, it was on a routine run to the fort down the North Channel. The new battery of Federal heavy guns on the north bank opened up for the first time. The old side-wheeler ran for Pulaski and the battery got off nine shots before the guns recoiled off their platforms. Two days later Ida ran up the South Channel under the extinguished lighthouse and returned to Savannah through Tybee Creek.[53]

Confederate naval presence

Once the Union battery at Venus Point was disclosed, Confederate gunboats engaged in gunnery duels, but they were driven off.[54] Over the next week, the besiegers completely surrounded the Fort. Federals built another battery on the Savannah River across from Venus Point. They threw a boom across Tybee Creek and cut the telegraph line between Savannah and Cockspur Island. Two infantry companies entrenched nearby to ward off Confederate raiders and a gunboat was detailed to patrol the channel and support the infantry. By late February 1862, no supplies or reinforcements could get in; the Confederate garrison could not get out. The last link of communications was a weekly swamp swimming courier.[55]

At the end of February Tattnall laid plans for an amphibious assault on the two advanced batteries at Venus Point and Oakley Island. General Lee personally interceded. Preparations at Old Fort Jackson were not completed. One of the three gunboats was disabled following the January resupply. He reasoned that if Tattnall's plan failed, the city itself would be open to attack. No further consideration was given to relief of the Fort; it had perhaps sixteen weeks of provisions left in store. Federal emplacements continued to improve on Jones and Bird islands, Venus Point and other points along the river.[56] During the Federal bombardment of Fort Pulaski, April 10–11, “Old Savannah” participated in counter-battery fire with besieging Union guns.[57]

Heavy caliber rifled cannons which the Federals needed to reduce Pulaski had arrived nearby in February, at which time Gillmore decided to locate the batteries at the northwestern tip of Tybee Island nearest the fort.[58] By March, Gillmore was offloading siege materiel onto Tybee Island. Roads had to be laid down, gun emplacements excavated, magazines and bomb-proofs constructed. As the work progressed southwesterly nearing the Fort, in the last mile the Union troops came under fire from the Fort’s Confederate gunners. All construction had to proceed by night, and each morning the uncompleted elements were camouflaged.[59]

Federal siege engineering

  • Bombproofs saved casualties; on Tybee Island sand ridges hid batteries from the Fort

  • Fed. bombproof construction, like Tybee Island during the Federal siege of Ft. Pulaski

Artillery pieces were taken off transports, set on rafts at high tide, and pitched into the surf near shore. At low tide, manpower alone would drag the guns up the beach. Two hundred and fifty men were required to move a 13-inch mortar along on a sling cart.[60] Along the two-and-a-half mile front, their engineers had to construct almost a mile of corduroy road made of bundles of brushwood to keep the guns from sinking into the swamp. While offloading proceeded day and night according to the tides, Confederate bombardment from Fort Pulaski gunners required all Federal movement into the island limited to night time.[61] After a month of work, 36 mortars and rifled cannons were in position.[62]

The four breaching batteries closest to the fort were each given specific firing missions.[63] Battery McClellan was to breach the southeast face, and the adjacent embrasure. Battery Totten was assigned to explode shells over the southeast walls, or at any hidden batteries outside the fort. Battery Scott with its columbiads' solid shot, was ordered to breach the same area as Battery McClellan. The fifth breaching battery was mortar Battery Halleck. It was given the task of shelling the arches of the northeast faces with plunging fire, "exploding after striking, not before".[2]

Battery Sigel included the five 30-pounder Parrots. Their mission was to fire on the barbette guns until silenced, then switch to percussion shells onto the southeast walls and adjacent embrasure, at a rate of 10-12 rounds an hour. Fire was to cease at dark, except for special directions. A signal officer was stationed at Battery Scott to communicate the ranging of the mortar batteries Stanton, Grant and Sherman.[64]

Bombardment

Surprise of the Parrot rifle
  • US 30-pdr Parrott Rifle battery massed fires on Fort SE corner
  • Walls suffered three breaches through 7-1/2 foot thickness
  • Penetrations were six men abreast. click for enlargement
  • Casemate guns were disabled, dismounted, reactivated

Following prohibitive rain squalls on the ninth, all was ready for the Federals by April 10, and the newly appointed Commander of the Department, Major-General David Hunter, sent a demand for “immediate surrender and restoration of Fort Pulaski to the authority and possession of the United States.” Colonel Olmstead replied, “I am here to defend the fort, not to surrender it.”[65] The bombardment began at 8:00 a.m., concentrating on the fort's southeast corner which suffered greatly. The Confederate gunnery was described by the Federal commander as “efficient and accurate firing ... great precision, not only at our batteries, but even at the individual persons passing between them.”[66]

As the day wore on, counter-battery fires from Fort Pulaski were gradually silenced as their guns were either dismounted or rendered unserviceable.[13] Two of the Federal 10-inch columbiads jumped backwards off their carriages. The 13-inch mortars placed less than 10% rounds on target.[67] But Federal fires proved effective from Parrott Rifles, scraped Davis tubes and working columbiad guns. There ensued a lull from the Fort, but the Confederate gunners re-opened an energetic counter battery duel that required the Parrotts to give up their wall assignment and concentrate on the working Confederate guns until they were silenced. By nightfall the wall at the southeast corner had been breached.[68]

Overnight, Du Pont’s flagship USS Wabash detached 100 crew to man four of the 30-pounder Parrott rifles.[69] In the morning, with the wind picking up right to left and effecting shell projectory,[70] the Union artillery resumed the bombardment, concentrating fires to enlarge the opening. The Georgia gunners again found targets, described in dispatches as Rebel “firing ... good all the morning, doing some damage”. At the same time, the Parrott rifles and Columbiads opened a great gap in the wall, sending shot across the interior of the fort and against the northwest powder magazine containing twenty tons of powder. Regarding his situation as hopeless, Olmstead surrendered the fort at 2:30 p.m. that day.[13]

General Gillmore reported in his after-action assessment of the siege by his artillery, “Good rifled guns, properly served can breach rapidly” at 1600-2000 yards when they are followed by heavy round shot to knock down loosened masonry. The 42-pounder James is unexcelled in breaching, but its grooves must be kept clean.[71] The 13-inch mortars had little effect.[72]

The new 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle had made a major impact on the battle. The rifled cannon fired significantly further with more accuracy and greater destructive impact than the smoothbores then in use. It's application achieved tactical surprise unanticipated by senior commanders of either side.[13]

Firing from a 30-pdr Parrott Rifle battery penetrated walls (center is SE corner), smoothbore guns merely shook walls “in a random manner” (right)

Aftermath

References

  1. ^ CSS Georgia: Archival Study Swanson, Mark and Robert Holcombe. January 31, 2007, p.30
  2. ^ a b New York Times, 04/20/1862 “Other official documents”. Fort Pulaski surrender.
  3. ^ CSS Georgia: Archival Study Swanson, Mark and Robert Holcombe. Jan 31, 2007, p.30. On March 30, 1861, the vessels and crews of the Navy of Georgia were turned over to confederate authorities
  4. ^ Swanson, M. and Holcombe, R., op.cit. p.30
  5. ^ Jones, Charles C., Jr., chief of artillery of the Confederate Department of Georgia “Seizure and reduction of fort Pulaski” article in “The Magazine of American history with notes and queries, Volume 14”, 1885 edited by John Austin Stevens, et al. p. 56. Fort 48 guns of all calibers: five 10-inch and nine 8-inch columbiads unchambered, three 42-pounder and twenty 32-pounder guns, two 24-Blakely rifle guns, one 24-pounder iron howitzer, two 12-pounder bronze howitzers, two 12-inch iron mortars, three 10-inch sea-coast mortars, and one 6-pounder bronze field piece.
  6. ^ Savannah boasted a roundhouse repair facility. Three railroads at the time of the Civil War were (1) Central of Georgia Railroad, 1843, to cotton center of the state: Macon and Milledgeville; (2) Savannah, Albany and Gulf Railroad to the south central part of Georgia; and (3) the Savannah Charleston Railroad in 1860 (later the "Charleston Savannah Railway"). The value of 38 manufacturing establishments of all kinds totaled near $1 million, more than any other county in the state.CSS Georgia: Archival Study Swanson, Mark and Robert Holcombe. January 31, 2007, p.13
  7. ^ Official Records, Army, excerpts. 379 men and officers were assigned to Fort Pulaski, another 1,183 on Tybee Island, 658 on Skidaway Island, and 533 in Savannah’s camps.
  8. ^ Archaeological Reconnaissance at the Drudi Tract, Tybee Island, Chatham County, Georgia. LAMAR Institute Publication Series, 127, By Daniel T. Elliott., Savannah, Georgia, 2008, p.14. Troops under the command of William Duncan Smith. Col. Olmstead would later command this regiment in the Army of Tennessee after service with his volunteers in the defense of Charleston, 1863.
  9. ^ On orders to procede to Virginia by the Confederate government, General Lawson directed the 1st Georgia Regulars to make transit regardless of protests from the Governor of Georgia. Two 8-inch columbiads from their Tybee Island battery were dismounted and relocated into Fort Pulaski.
  10. ^ The pre-Civil War militia designation was used by the unit, officially Georgia’s Ninth Volunteer Regiment.
  11. ^ Elliott, op.cit.
  12. ^ Lattimore, Ralston B., “Fort Pulaski National Monument, Georgia, Historical Handbook Number Eighteen 1954 (reprint 1961).
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Lattimore, Ralston B., op.cit.
  14. ^ *Jones, Charles C. , Jr., “Military lessons inculcated on the Coast of Georgia during the Confederate War” an address before the Confederate survivors’ association, Augusta Georgia, April 26, 1883. by Col. Charles C. Jones, Jr., pres. of the association.
  15. ^ | DAILY CONSTITUTIONALIST, Augusta, GA, May 17, 1861, p. 2, c. 1. The newspaper’s anonymous correspondent at Fort Pulaski was signed “Novissimus”, possibly an officer in the First Georgia Regulars
  16. ^ Official Records, Armies, Chapter XV. Operations on the Coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and middle and east Florida. August 21, 1861-April 11, 1862. Correspondence, etc. – Confederate. November 29 on p. 32, December 20 on p. 42.
  17. ^ The inset extends the map northeast up the coast towards Charleston, S.C. Map shows sailing directions: piloting offshore, finding anchorage, beating over the bar, tides, currents, navigational aides. Click once to the Wikimedia site. Click again for map full screen, click again for magnification to read notes.
  18. ^ Official Records, Armies, op.cit. Chap. XV. p. 85, January 29, 1862
  19. ^ Official Records, Armies, op.cit. Chap. XV. March 1, 1862. p. 403
  20. ^ Official Records, Armies, op.cit. Chap. XV. March 3, 1862, p. 34
  21. ^ Fort Pulaski - National Monument, National Park Service Historical Handbook Series, “General Lee Returns to Fort Pulaski” (about 1962).
  22. ^ CSS Georgia: Archival Study Swanson, Mark and Robert Holcombe. January 31, 2007, p.25
  23. ^ Porter, David D., “The Naval History of the Civil War” Chapter 9, operations of Admiral Du Pont’s squadron in the sounds of South Carolina. page 83+.
  24. ^ “Fort McAllister I” National Park Service (nps), Heritage Preservation Services, The American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP).
  25. ^ http://shapiro.anthro.uga.edu/Lamar/images/PDFs/publication_127.pdf | Archaeological Reconnaissance at the Drudi Tract, Tybee Island, Chatham County, Georgia. LAMAR Institute Publication Series, #127, By Daniel T. Elliott., Savannah, Georgia, 2008, p.14
  26. ^ Brown, David A. "Fort Pulaski: April 1862." The Civil War Battlefield Guide: Second Edition. Edited by Frances H. Kennedy. Goughton Mifflin Company, New York, 1998. ISBN 0-395-74012-6
  27. ^ Fort Pulaski – National Monument, Historical Handbook, NPS, Op. Cit. “Investment of Fort Pulaski”
  28. ^ Fort Pulaski – National Monument, Historical Handbook, NPS, Op. Cit. “Investment of Fort Pulaski”
  29. ^ Elliott, 2008, p. 153.
  30. ^ National Park Service battle description
  31. ^ History of the Confederate States navy”, Scharf, John, p. 89. The brig Bonita (also “Bonito”), built in New York in 1853, 276 tons burden. A fast sailer. Formerly engaged in the slave trade, captured on the coast of Africa, taken to Charleston, then Savannah, where she was seized and converted into a Georgia privateer.
  32. ^ Swanson, M. and Holcombe, R., op.cit. p. 30. Minimal losses were suffered on either side.
  33. ^ The CSS Sampson, also Samson. The sidewheeler steamboat had been a tugboat prior to purchase by the Confederate Government, 1861.
  34. ^ “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Navy Dept., Naval Historical Center, online at CSS Savannah, CSS Sampson, CSS Lady Davis, Resolute, CSS Ida, CSS Georgia: Archival Study Swanson, Mark and Robert Holcombe. January 31, 2007, p.30
  35. ^ Jones, Charles C., Jr. The life and services of Commodore Josiah Tattnall 1878. Morning News steam printing house, Savannah.
  36. ^ NPS battle description, op.cit.
  37. ^ Blockade Runner 1861-1865 By Angus Konstam. Sketch with description, p.9
  38. ^ History of the Confederate states navy, Scharf, J. Thomas, 1887
  39. ^ Elliott, op.cit. p.9. They were USS Flag, USS Seneca and USS Pocahontas.
  40. ^ Elliott, Daniel, Archaeological Reconnaissance at the Drudi Tract, Tybee Island ... op.cit. p. 14. After early misleadingly optimistic reports, within a few days, Federal reports described the firing as having caused substantial internal damage to the lighthouse, and the lens appeared to have been removed by the evacuating Confederates sometime earlier.
  41. ^ Marines in the Civil War, excerpts. Sullivan, David.
  42. ^ Elliot, op.cit.
  43. ^ Elliott, op.cit.
  44. ^ Elliott, op.cit.p.10
  45. ^ Victor, op.cit.
  46. ^ CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage Following her successful blockade run into Savannah, ownership was transferred to the Confederate government as pre-arranged. Fingal was converted into a casemate ironclad and renamed CSS Atlanta (1862-1863). In her first attack on Union blockaders, she was blocked by obstructions. In the second in spring 1863, Atlanta was met by U.S. monitors Nahant and Weehawken, overwhelmed in a gunnery duel and surrendered. In early 1864, the ship was re-commissioned the USS Atlanta and took up station in the James River supporting Grant’s siege of Richmond.
  47. ^ Fort Pulaski – National Monument, Historical Handbook, NPS, Op. Cit. “Investment of Fort Pulaski”
  48. ^ “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Navy Dept., Naval Historical Center, online at CSS Savannah, CSS Sampson, CSS Lady Davis, Resolute, CSS Ida, "CSS Georgia: Archival Study" Swanson, Mark and Robert Holcombe. January 31, 2007, p.30
  49. ^ Fort Pulaski – National Monument, Historical Handbook, NPS, Op. Cit. “The New Weapon”
  50. ^ “Battles and leaders of the civil war”, vol.1, p. 691, cites Major General Thomas W. Sherman as senior commander, land forces. Succeeded by Major General David Butler, at the time of the April bombardment. See “Official records of the Union and Confederate armies”, Chapter XV, p. 135. Cornell University.
  51. ^ Victor, op. cit. p.106
  52. ^ Victor, op. cit. p.106
  53. ^ Fort Pulaski – National Monument, Historical Handbook, NPS, Op. Cit.
  54. ^ Victor, op. cit. p.106
  55. ^ name=“FPHH”
  56. ^ For a contemporary narrative of the process, see “chapter V... building batteries on Jones and Bird Islands” in Captain (later Colonel) James M. Nichols memoir, | “Perry’s Saints, or the fighting parson’s regiment in the War of Rebellion”. 1886. the 48th New York State Volunteers regimental history from survivor interviews and soldier journals under the command of Methodist minister, Colonel James H. Perry. This regiment would later garrison Fort Pulaski. One of the earliest photographs of baseball is of this regiment playing in the fort yard. See nps website photos.
  57. ^ >CSS Georgia: Archival Study Swanson, Mark and Holcombe, Robert. January 31, 2007, p.27, “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Navy Dept. , Naval Historical Center, online at CSS Savannah
  58. ^ NPS battle description, op.cit.
  59. ^ Fort Pulaski – National Monument, Historical Handbook, NPS, Op. Cit. “Gillmore sets the stage”
  60. ^ This early in the conflict, it was still a “white man’s war”, and contrabands/freedmen were not yet employed under considerations for shave-holder ‘property’. Victor, op.cit., p.107)
  61. ^ Victor, op.cit., p.106.
  62. ^ NPS battle description, op.cit.
  63. ^ Battery McClellan, (two 42 and 32-pounders, James, 1,620 yards from the work,), Battery Totten, (four 10-inch siege mortars, 1,685 yards from the works,), Battery Sigel (five 30-pounder Parrots and one 24-pounder James, 1,620 yards from the works), Battery Scott, (three 10-inch and one 8-inch columbiads,) 1,077 yards from the work, Battery Halleck, (2,400 yards from the work, two 13-inch mortars.)
  64. ^ New York Times, 04/20/1862 “Other official documents”. Fort Pulaski surrender.
  65. ^ Victor, op. cit., p. 107.
  66. ^ Victor, op. cit., p. 108
  67. ^ Gillmore, Q. A., Official report ... of the siege and reduction of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, March and April, 1862. by Brig.-Gen. Q.A. Gillmore, Captain of Engineers, U.S.A., to the United States Engineer Department, 1862, D.Van Nostrand, NY. The columbiads failed due to incompatible bolts shearing off. They were not inspected before they were placed in the line for firing.
  68. ^ Victor, op. cit., p. 108
  69. ^ Fort Pulaski - National Monument, National Park Service Historical Handbook Series (about 1962). “Significance of the Siege”
  70. ^ Gillmore, Q. A., Op.Cit, 1862, Appendix Tables of battery and gun fire.
  71. ^ Gillmore’s orders had specified James guns having grooves cleaned every 5-6 rounds fired. NYT, op.cit.
  72. ^ Victor, op. cit., p. 108
  73. ^ Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury”, Maury, Richard Launcelot.1901.
  74. ^ http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862ConfTorpedoService.htm Confederate Torpedo Service By R. O. Crowley The Century / Volume 56, Issue 2, The Century Company, New York, June 1898)
  75. ^ CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage The Fingal was converted to the ironclad CSS Atlanta. It made two sorties, was captured, repaired, and returned to service as the ironclad USS Atlanta supporting Grant's Siege of Petersburg.
  76. ^ "Presidential Proclamation May 19, 1862", Abraham Lincoln.
  77. ^ Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War by Jacqueline Jones , ISBN 978-1-4000-7816-5 vintage books, 2009 p. 152
  78. ^ Fort Pulaski - National Monument, National Park Service Historical Handbook Series (about 1962). “The immortal six-hundred” Confederate Gen. Samuel Jones initiated human shield tactics to save Confederate Fort Sumter. Union Gen. J.G. Jones retaliated. Senior commanders on both sides contributed to abuse of their prisoners.

External links

Cockspur Island Light, Savannah, Georgia, Fort Pulaski National Park. Marks seaward approach to North Channel and South Channel, Savannah River.
Tybee island light station, Savannah, Georgia, active Coast Guard with museum. Third Lighthouse.
CSS Georgia. Floating gun battery off Old Fort Jackson. Army Corps of Engineers.
Ironclads and gunboats of the Savannah River Squadron. Squadron headquartered at Old Fort Jackson. Background for historical marker.
Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. Ships models for Atlantic trade, 1700s and 1800s. descriptive listing by Nautical Research Guild.
The Historic Railroad Shops and roundtable, Savannah, Georgia
St. Simons Island Light, Brunswick, Georgia, active Coast Guard with museum.

Further reading

Archives

Memoirs and Biography

United States

Confederate States

Monographs

Coordinates: 32°01′38″N 80°53′27″W / 32.02729°N 80.89096°W

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