From the April 8th Savannah (Ga) Now "Engineers' promises didn't stand up to Union bombardment of Fort Pulaski" by Richard Burkhart.
"It was observed that...a breach was made in the wall of the southeast angle, nearest Tybee Island, and that before the fort surrendered this breach was wide enough to drive a four-horse team through."-- Brig. Gen. Lawton, Cmdr. Georgia Coastal Defense.
On Jan. 3, 1861, then-Col. Lawton and three militia units came down the Savannah River and took over Fort Pulaski from its one officer garrison.
Completed in 1847, the fort had never seen action. Robert E. Lee and the other U.S. Army engineers who built it believed to to be impregnable.
Nearby Tybee Island had not been fortified and Union forces just walked in and took it. Over the next several months, they constructed works within range of Pulaski with much difficulty. General Lee, now in charge of Confederate coastal defenses at the time, told the fort's commander, Col. Charles Olmstead, "they will make it pretty warm for you here with shells, but they cannot breach your walls at that distance." Those walls were seven and a half feet thick.
Of course, at this time, the accuracy, power and distance of the new rifled cannons were not fully understood.
On today's date in 1862, the Union bombardment began with mortars and rifled cannons. By the next day, the southeast walls had been breached, exposing the northwest powder magazine and after 30 hours of Union shells, the fort surrendered on April 11, 1862.
Another Blow to the South. --Old B-Runner
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