Fort Pulaski National Monument protects a Third System masonry fort on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, completed in 1847 after 18 years of construction that briefly involved a young Lt. Robert E. Lee. On April 10-11, 1862, Union forces on Tybee Island bombarded the fort with new rifled cannon that breached its brick walls in about 30 hours, forcing the Confederate garrison under Col. Charles Olmstead to surrender and demonstrating that masonry forts were obsolete. Under Union control the fort became a place of freedom after General Orders No. 7 (April 1862) freed enslaved people on Cockspur Island, and it was later a prison for Confederate officers; it was proclaimed a national monument in 1924.
About this site
Fort Pulaski National Monument is a national park site in Chatham County, Georgia. It is one of 480 historic sites cataloged in Chatham County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 32.0276, -80.8895. The nearest cataloged historic site is This Memorial Commemorates The Act Of... (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Key to the South, 5,275 Shots & Shells in 30 Hours, and Burial Sites of Immortal 600.
This record is drawn from the National Park Service. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
Fort Pulaski National Monument protects a Third System masonry fort on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, completed in 1847 after 18 years of construction that briefly involved a young Lt. Robert E. Lee. On April 10-11, 1862, Union forces on Tybee Island bombarded the fort with new rifled cannon that breached its brick walls in about 30 hours, forcing the Confederate garrison under Col. Charles Olmstead to surrender and demonstrating that masonry forts were obsolete. Under Union control the fort became a place of freedom after General Orders No. 7 (April 1862) freed enslaved people on Cockspur Island, and it was later a prison for Confederate officers; it was proclaimed a national monument in 1924.
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