More Military Stuff (GA 03-23-13)

Fort Pulaski

Visiting nearby Tybee Island was on our list of “must do” things while in the Savannah area, but we held off, waiting for better weather.  Finally we had no choice- we headed to Tybee even though it was still pretty cold-and very windy- out.  We did a drive by of the island but since it wasn’t a beach day, we elected to head to Fort Pulaski (yes, yet another fort).

  I admit, I feel like I’ve seen enough forts for a while, but Paul really enjoys them, and the weather was not cooperating, so what the heck. It turned out to be one of my favorite fort visits. After the war of 1812, President Madison ordered the construction of a series of coastal fortifications, to protect the U.S. against foreign invasion. It was during that time period- 1829- that construction of Fort Pulaski began. After 30 years, this state-of-the-art fort was finished.

The fort is still in remarkable condition and is a great example of a Civil War era fort.  After the war, the fort was abandoned and not used again, so it never had additions or modifications done to update it for more modern warfare.

It still boasts a drawbridge and moat.

 

The interior parade grounds- each of the arched doorways would have had doors like the gray door in this picture.  They were all numbered, to keep confusion to a minimum, and a commander would say “go get me the rifles behind door 13”.

We took an awesome ranger guided tour of the fort where we learned that these wooden boards, called Blindage, would be put up all along the interior walls, then dirt would be piled up about to about halfway up the wood.  That essentially made the interior bomb proof.  Or so they thought.

So, that brings us to the role that Fort Pulaski played during the Civil War. 

Originally this fort was designed to hold more than 40 cannons and hundreds of men, but because it wasn’t actually needed for defense when it was finished, only two caretakers were sent to occupy the fort. It sits at the mouth of the Savannah River, protecting, in part, the port of Savannah.  In 1860, nearby South Carolina seceded from the Union, and anticipating that Georgia would soon follow in South Carolina’s footsteps, Georgia’s governor ordered that the fort be taken.  It wasn’t difficult, since, as I mentioned, there were only two caretakers there.

Fast forward to 1861. The Union army has decided that they need to secure access to the port of Savannah, so they set up an army of men on nearby Tybee Island.  Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee, one of the original architects of Fort Pulaski, comes to assess the fort’s defenses .  He assures the commander that the fort is impenetrable. Unfortunately, he did not know about a new invention- rifled artillery. I have mentioned before that it boggled my mind that forts in the 1700-1800s were built over a period of 20-30 years, and they were state of the art at the time they were built, but the minute rifled artillery was introduced, all forts became obsolete.  The Battle of Fort Pulaski played a huge role in that part of history.  It was here that the Union army decided to test the use of rifled artillery.  They pounded on the fort, firing over 5000 cannon shots, mostly trying to hit the same area of the of the wall. Within 30 hours they had drilled a hole clear through the wall of the fort. The Confederates didn’t surrender at this point, but they did soon after. 



Paul in the Powder Magazine



Why?  Because a cannon ball came through the opening in the fort, and landed in the hallway that led to the powder magazine.  A magazine that held 40,000 lbs of gun powder.  The white flag flew shortly thereafter.

The success of rifled artillery in this battle brought warfare into a whole new era, immediately transforming most existing forts into historic relics.

Mighty 8th Air Force Museum

 

Moving on from the Civil War to World War II, we took advantage of yet another rainy day to tour the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum.

The 8th airborne flew out of Savannah and were stationed in England during World War II. Paul enjoyed the museum tremendously and surprisingly, I found quite a few exhibits very interesting. I liked this one just because it was cool looking.

   

Inside the museum there were two rooms that were set up like a small French Safe House.  On the walls were pictures and notes  that told the personal stories of people who risked their lives to rescue and hide downed pilots from the Germans. Some people went so far as to build secret rooms in their homes, and some individuals helped rescue and return more than 100 pilots to England.

The first women to fly for the U.S. Military were the Fly Girls of World War II.  Due to a shortage of pilots, over 1000 women were trained to fly advanced military aircraft. Once trained, they took over such jobs as flying new aircraft from factory to air base.  One of their most dangerous jobs was Target Pilot.  They would fly planes towing targets behind them so that anti-aircraft and aerial gunners could practice using their weapons- using live ammunition.

38 of these women died in the line of duty, but because they were considered civilians, they weren’t accorded military benefits- there was no insurance, and the military didn’t even pay to have their coffins sent home.  Decades later, they were all awarded military recognition for their role in World War II.