Battle of Fort Pulaski The Battle of Fort Pulaski was fought April 10 – 11 , 1862 , during the American Civil War . Union forces on Tybee Island and naval operations conducted a 112 - day siege , then captured the Confederate - held Fort Pulaski after a 30 - hour bombardment . The battle is important for innovative use of rifled guns which made existing coastal defenses obsolete . The Union initiated large scale amphibious operations under fire . The fort ' s surrender strategically closed Savannah as a port . The Union extended its blockade and aids to navigation down the Atlantic coast , then redeployed most of its 10 , 000 troops . The Confederate army - navy defense blocked Federal advance for over three months , secured the city , and prevented any subsequent Union advance from seaward during the war . Coastal rail connections were extended to blockaded Charleston , South Carolina . Fort Pulaski is located on Cockspur Island , Georgia , near the mouth of the Savannah River . The fort commanded seaward approaches to the City of Savannah . It was commercially and industrially important as a cotton exporting port , railroad center and the largest manufacturing center in the state , including a state arsenal and private shipyards . Two southerly estuaries led to the Savannah River behind the fort . Immediately east of Pulaski , and in sight of Hilton Head Island , South Carolina , lay Tybee Island with a lighthouse station . Background . Fort Pulaski was built as a " Third System " fort in the United States system of coastal defense on land ceded to the United States by the State of Georgia . Authorized by appropriations begun by Congress under the James Madison administration , construction of Third System forts was directed under U . S . Secretaries of War including James Monroe of Virginia , William H . Crawford of Georgia , and John Calhoun of South Carolina . The new construction replaced two earlier forts on Tybee Island . A British colonial fort was torn down in the American Revolution . The first U . S . fort , authorized in the Washington Administration , was swept away in an 1804 hurricane . Construction began on Fort Pulaski during 1830 , and was completed in 1845 in the administration of John Tyler by a successor of U . S . Secretary of War John Bell of Tennessee . The new fort was named to honor Casimir Pulaski , the Polish hero of the American Revolution . A young Lieutenant Robert E . Lee served as an engineer during the construction of the fort , at which time he resided in Savannah , Georgia . The Third System fort expanded Savannah ' s defenses downriver from " Old " Fort Jackson , a " Second System " fort which had been built nearby the city to defend the immediate approaches to its wharves . In the campaigns for national elections in 1860 , Southern secessionists threatened civil war , were their opponent to be elected President . Following the policy of President James Buchanan and his Secretary of War John B . Floyd of Virginia , the newly inaugurated Lincoln Administration at first did not garrison and defend forts , arsenals or U . S . Treasury Mints in the South . The policy was continued until April 12 , 1861 , at Fort Sumter , South Carolina , just north along the Atlantic Coast from Fort Pulaski . " Department of Georgia " . On January 3 , 1861 , sixteen days before the secession of Georgia from the Union , 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 . 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 . The Regiment was reassigned to Virginia , departing July 17 , 1861 . Olmstead ’ s “ First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia ” would garrison Fort Pulaski through the Federal siege . 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 . 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 . " If there were ever to be a successful siege , it would have to starve the garrison into submission . 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 . Operationally , General Robert 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 . He had been instrumental in the engineering connected with channelling tidewaters around the fort where a hurricane had swept a previous structure on the same site . He knew the lay of the land and the tides of the sea there . Defense in depth . When Federal forces first made a lodgment on Tybee Island , the work on Fort Pulaski was progressing slowly , but Robert E . Lee ’ s judgment as the District ' s commanding general 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 by Confederates in water approaches that led behind Fort Pulaski . Lee brought Commodore Tattnall from a James River command , where under imminent attack from Union monitors he had landed sailors to expand Richmond fortifications immediately after the Battle of Hampton Roads . Tattnall then manned batteries with his gunners to repel monitor attacks threatening to bombard Richmond ' s Tredegar Iron Works . Tattnall ' s sailors would perform similar service at a battery across from Savannah ' s Fort Jackson . Turning his attention to Fort Pulaski ' s defenses , Lee anticipated Union moves to establish batteries above the Fort . He ordered guns positioned to cover their likely positions were the Federals to get behind Pulaski in a siege attempt . 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 . 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 . 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 . Savannah ' s existing Fort Jackson , about three miles downriver from the city , was supplemented with two additional batteries . Defenders built fire barges . 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 . The Union fleet conducted explorations among the Atlantic inlets and coastal marshes by shallow draft ships , boats and monitors . But when they came up against earthworks such as Fort McAllister just south of Savannah , their efforts using bombardment alone were fruitless . The Federals would not advance on Savannah until General William T . Sherman ’ s March from the interior in 1864 . 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 cannons , including ten columbiad s , five mortars , and a Blakely rifle . The Confederate Tybee Island battery had been previously dismantled and abandoned , and their guns relocated to the fort . The fort had been provisioned on January 28 with a six - month 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 . 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 . Federal advance . 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 . First they needed a coaling station for the blockading South Atlantic Squadron . It then could serve as a base for the expedition . Fort Sumter would not be retaken until 1865 , but the Battle of Port Royal answered the immediate requirement for a nearby staging area . Blockade . As the Union forces went about taking Port Royal , Commodore Josiah Tattnall , CSN , and his “ mosquito fleet ” mounted an active defense , harassing 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 ” sortie d with gunships " CSS Savannah " ( flag ) , " Sampson " , " Lady Davis " and tender " Resolute " . These four along with the converted slaver - privateer " Bonita " , met eight of Du Pont ’ s fifteen US warships on November 5 , and were “ outgunned and outclassed ” . 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 " 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 . 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 Savannah for repairs . Contact . After building up facilities on Hilton Head Island , the Federals began preparations for besieging Fort Pulaski . The Union expedition next captured Tybee Island . 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 . Under a two - hour ship ’ s bombardment , the Confederate pickets set fire to the lighthouse and withdrew . 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 . Two days later commanding Flag Officer Du Pont and General Thomas Sherman made a personal reconnaissance , 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 . The Navy set the logistics train in motion , and by December 20 , the Army had sufficient materials for establishing “ a permanent possession ” . 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 . Pulaski ’ s share on ship ' s manifest was two 24 - pounder Blakely rifle s 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 gunboat s at two southerly estuaries , Warsaw Sound , south of Wilmington Island , and Ossabaw Sound at Skidaway Island . On November 26 Tattnall ’ s flag , " CSS " Old " 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 ” . " " Old Savannah " was partially disabled but returned to harbor . " Sampson " received considerable damage , returning to patrol the Savannah River only in mid - November the following year . Siege . 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 . Commanding General Thomas W . Sherman 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 . Of the two senior military commanders leading up to the engagement , neither Union General Thomas Sherman , nor Confederate General Robert E . Lee believed the fort could be captured by bombardment alone . Approaches . Two sites for Federal batteries were selected upriver from the fort to cut it off from Savannah , just as Lee had anticipated . The first was at Point Venus at the east end of Jones Island along the north bank of the Savannah River 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 . Tattnall ’ s gunboats still commanded the lower river around Point Venus . As a part of Lee ' s active defense , the Confederate ' s Savannah River Squadron launched continuous patrols . Their naval gunnery required the work along the river by Union besiegers to be done at night . The Federal ' s guns had to be pulled by hand through swamp over moveable tram sections , the men working in brackish alligator - infested marsh , sinking in over their waist most of the day . The artillery then had to be placed on board - and - bag platforms to avoid their loss by sinking into the morass . The soldiers rested during the day . By Lee ' s estimation , the fort could not be reduced by bombardment or direct assault , only by starvation . As long as supplies could be built up , they would be . 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 . Union troops went back to work modifying platform construction and resetting the cannon . Two days later " Ida " ran up the South Channel under the extinguished lighthouse and returned to Savannah through Tybee Creek . Once the Union battery at Venus Point was disclosed , Confederate gunboats engaged in gunnery duels , but they were driven off . 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 raiding activity 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 . 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 . Although Tattnall ' s flagship had been put back into service since the Squadron ' s January resupply sortie , one of the three gunboats was still seriously disabled . Lee reasoned that if Tattnall ' s plan failed , the city itself would be open to attack . The three - to - seven exchange had not gone well for the defenders of Savannah . A possible two - to - seven match against ships with superior armament did not promise better . No further consideration was given to relief of the Fort ; in any case , it had perhaps sixteen weeks of provisions left in store . Meanwhile , Federal emplacements continued to improve on Jones and Bird islands , Venus Point and other points along the river . During the Federal bombardment of Fort Pulaski , April 10 – 11 , “ Old " Savannah " ” participated in counter - battery fire with besieging Union guns . Heavy caliber rifled cannon 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 . 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 . A ranging shot said to be aimed by Colonel Olmstead himself cut a Union soldier in two . The following bombardment from elevated fort guns effected mortar barrages that forced all construction to proceed on Tybee Island by night . Each morning the uncompleted elements of siege construction were camouflaged against the fort ' s spotters . To land the cannon onto Tybee Island , 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 . Later Union amphibious operations would employ contraband labor for much of this work . 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 . After a month of work , 36 mortars , heavy guns and rifled cannon were in position . The four breaching batteries closest to the fort were each given specific firing missions . Battery McClellan with the heavy James rifled cannon , was to breach the southeast face and the adjacent embrasure . Battery Totten with mortars 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 " . Battery Sigel included the five 30 - pounder Parrotts and a 24 - pounder James . 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 to effect wall penetrations for the planned infantry assaults to come later . Fire was to cease at dark , except for special directions , and in the event , intermittent harassment was sustained on the fort overnight . A signal officer was stationed at Battery Scott to communicate the ranging of the mortar batteries Stanton , Grant and Sherman . Bombardment . 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 . ” 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 . ” As the day wore on , counter - battery fires from Fort Pulaski were gradually silenced as their guns were either dismounted or rendered unserviceable . Two of the Federal 10 - inch columbiads jumped backwards off their carriages . The 13 - inch mortars placed less than 10 % rounds on target . 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 re - silenced . By nightfall the wall at the southeast corner had been breached . Under periodic harassing bombardment throughout the hours of darkness , Olmstead ' s garrison put several guns back into service . Overnight , Du Pont ’ s flagship " USS Wabash " detached 100 crew to man four of the 30 - pounder Parrott rifles . In the morning , with the wind picking up right to left and affecting shell projectory , 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 . 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 . The 13 - inch mortars had little effect . 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 . Its application achieved tactical surprise unanticipated by senior commanders of either side . Aftermath . Access today . See the " External Links " section below " References " to find directions , hours of operation , and descriptions of exhibits . Further reading . Archives Memoirs and Biography United States Confederate States Monographs Curriculum