Responsibility
For most of the early work on Fort Pulaski fell on the shoulders of Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, recently graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Lee oversaw the preliminary construction, choosing the site and designing a system of drains and dikes to support the weight of the masonry fort. In 1831 Lieutenant Joseph K. Mansfield took charge of Pulaski's construction and oversaw the project for the next fourteen years. When finished in 1847, the fort could mount 146 cannons, some on the parapet atop the 7.5-foot-wide walls and others in casemates inside the walls.
Civil War
In January 1861, shortly before Georgia seceded from the Union, state troops occupied Pulaski to keep Union forces from garrisoning it. During the fourteen years since the fort's completion, its condition had deteriorated considerably. Its moat had filled with mud, and not a single cannon was mounted in place. Five companies of troops from Macon and Savannah formed the garrison. Helped by …show more content…
Soon, more shells were passing through the wall and striking the interior of the fort. Olmstead decided to surrender the garrison when the firing came perilously close to one of the main powder magazines. In less than thirty-six hours and with the loss of only one Union soldier, the new rifled cannons had brought the surrender of a fort that took eighteen years to build—a fort that some of the best engineers in both armies had said could not be reduced by such an artillery assault.
The reduction and capture of Fort Pulaski in 1862 not only deprived the Confederacy of a port it desperately needed but also signaled a major shift in the way future forts would be built as well as the way they would be attacked. Captain Gilmore took a risk when he decided to assault the fort with the new rifled cannons, but his gamble paid off and led to significant changes in military
For most of the early work on Fort Pulaski fell on the shoulders of Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, recently graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Lee oversaw the preliminary construction, choosing the site and designing a system of drains and dikes to support the weight of the masonry fort. In 1831 Lieutenant Joseph K. Mansfield took charge of Pulaski's construction and oversaw the project for the next fourteen years. When finished in 1847, the fort could mount 146 cannons, some on the parapet atop the 7.5-foot-wide walls and others in casemates inside the walls.
Civil War
In January 1861, shortly before Georgia seceded from the Union, state troops occupied Pulaski to keep Union forces from garrisoning it. During the fourteen years since the fort's completion, its condition had deteriorated considerably. Its moat had filled with mud, and not a single cannon was mounted in place. Five companies of troops from Macon and Savannah formed the garrison. Helped by …show more content…
Soon, more shells were passing through the wall and striking the interior of the fort. Olmstead decided to surrender the garrison when the firing came perilously close to one of the main powder magazines. In less than thirty-six hours and with the loss of only one Union soldier, the new rifled cannons had brought the surrender of a fort that took eighteen years to build—a fort that some of the best engineers in both armies had said could not be reduced by such an artillery assault.
The reduction and capture of Fort Pulaski in 1862 not only deprived the Confederacy of a port it desperately needed but also signaled a major shift in the way future forts would be built as well as the way they would be attacked. Captain Gilmore took a risk when he decided to assault the fort with the new rifled cannons, but his gamble paid off and led to significant changes in military