History:

• Construction

Construction of the fort began in 1829 to protect the port of Savannah from foreign invasion, under the direction of Major General Babcock and later Second Lieutenant Robert E. Lee. In 1833, the facility was name Fort Pulaski in honor of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish solider and limitary commander who fought during the the American Revolution under the command of Georgo Washington.

The fort was finally completed in 1847, after 18 years of construction and nearly $1 million (~$26.8 million in 2022) in construction costs. Wooden pilings were sunk up to 70 feet into the mud to support an estimated 25 million bricks. Walls were 11 feet thick and were thought be impenetrable except by only the largest land artillery. The smoothbore cannon of the time had a range of only around half a mile, and the nearest land (Tybee Island) was much further away than that. It was assumed that the fort would be invincible to enemy attack.

• Civil War

During the Civil War, in 1860 the fort was seized by the state of Georgia by the order of the govern Joseph E. Brown. The following year, the state joined the Confederate States of America, and Confederate troops moved into the fort. By December, Union troops, led by Quincy A. Gillmore, gained a foothold at Tybee Island, which was abandoned by Confederate forces as it was thought to be too isolated and unprepared for conflict, and began contracting batteries along the beaches. On the morning of April 10, 1862, Union forces asked for the surrender of the Fort to prevent needless loss of life. Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, commander of the Conferated garrison, rejected the offer. Union troops began the long bombardment of Fort Pulaski using 36 guns with 4-5 miles father rifled projectiles than the larger and heavier smoothbore cannonballs. Within 30 hours, the new rifled cannon had breached one of the fort’s corner walls. Shells now passed through the fort dangerously close to the main powder magazine. Reluctantly, Colonel Olmstead surrendered the fort. Only two soldiers (one Confederate and one Union) were killed in the attack.

• Union Control

Within six weeks of the surrender, Union forces repaired the fort, and all shipping into and out of Savannah ceased. The loss of Savannah as a viable Confederate port crippled its war effort. With the Fort securely in Union control, General David Hunter, commander of the Union garrison, issued General Order Number 7 on April 16, 1862, which stated that all enslaved at the fort and on Cockspur Island were now free.[7] Fort Pulaski was made a final destination on the Underground Railroad, as slaves throughout the area were freed upon their arrival to Cockspur Island. In October 1864, the fort became a prison for captured Confederated soldiers, mostly officers, known as “Immortal Six Hundred.” Due to gruesome conditions, 13 of the men died at t he fort and were buried outside of its walls. After the war ended, Fort Pulaski continued briefly as a military and political prison.

• Postwar

By the turn of the 20th century, the fort began to fall into disrepair. In an effort to save the old fort, the War Department finally declared Fort Pulaski a National Monument on October 15, 1924, by presidential proclamation of Calvin Coolidge. The monument was transferred to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. Repairs were then started, and members of the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived on Cockspur Island and began rehabilitation of the fort. A museum was opened in 1980s.

Reference:

U.S. National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/fopu/index.htm

Wikipedia