Images of Fort Pulaski National Monument – Southern Georgia, taken in September 2019.

Built over 18 years and using 25 million bricks Fort Pulaski and its 7 foot thick walls were considered invincible when it was completed in 1847. Taken over by the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War, the fort provided protection to the city of Savannah and a defense of the Savannah River shipping channel. Early in 1862 Union Forces began moving mortars and smoothbore and rifled cannons into place on Tybee Island across the South Channel of the Savannah River believing that a sustained bombardment of the fort would result in its surrender. The key to the success of the plan would be the use of the new rifled cannons that, unlike conventional smoothbore cannons, had spiraled grooves in the barrel providing more distance, accuracy and penetration power to the fired rounds. Once the barrage began it took less than two days to force the Confederates to surrender the fort.

Today Fort Pulaski National Monument protects the remains of the fort to include the Union Artillery craters on the south and southeast walls and even a Union shell which is still lodged in the brick of the southeast wall.

For anyone worried about Beth’s incarceration; after prolonged negotiations I was able to secure her release and sent her back to her post in Atlanta. Perhaps a Nobel Prize is in my future…