Oh, What a Day!!!

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Oh, did my little old Civil War history-loving heart sing today!!!! Earlier I mentioned Sherman’s “march to the sea,” and so today I went to where that infamous event ended: Fort McAllister, just outside of Savannah, Georgia. Ooh, was this great. I’ll try to calm down and describe it instead of just repeating what a deep dive into history it was. Fort McAllister was a Confederate fort, standing on the banks of the Ogeechee River. Unlike many forts it was comprised solely of earthen fortresses, which actually made it better. The information along the mile-long path stated that the soldiers would quickly and easily repair damage in the ground caused by cannonballs fired into the fort, while other forts were destroyed when a cannonball or ten hit the stone walls. I think one of the best things about this great state park (and kudos to Georgia for maintaining it…I’d hate to think what it’d be like if it was part of the National Park Service ) is the fact that you can actually walk into the earthworks. While none of the barracks or earthwork bunker quarters are original, thanks to the fact that photographers accompanied General William Sherman on his quest to present Savannah to President Lincoln as a Christmas present (which he did, capturing this fort that protected Savannah on December 13, 1864) there are ample photographs that allowed for painstaking authenticity in the reconstruction. The top left photo is a series of bunks for the soldiers to sleep in, located inside the earthworks. One would think they’d sleep in there often, to protect themselves from the blistering Georgia summers or cold winter nights, but no. Sleeping there was limited to it being a “battle station” manned because an attack was happening or feared to be forthcoming. The rest of the time, the soldiers slept in tents in the middle of the parade ground. In the top right you can see the open flat area amid all the natural defenses of the hills. (That was a bad place to be — since it was so open — if cannons were being fired at the fort.) The wildest thing for me was the “hot shot” furnace. This was an area where cannonballs were heated in a furnace, then loaded into a cannon and shot at a ship. The purpose was for the cannonball to not only do damage but for the intense heat from the furnace to set the ships, constructed at that time primarily of wood, on fire. One job nobody wanted in the summer months, that’s for sure!! In addition to walking the fort and seeing where the Union troops breached the fort, there is a museum loaded with artifacts that have been found on the property as well as in the Ogeechee River. The Nashville, renamed the CSS (Confederate States Ship) Rattlesnake, was sunk outside the fort by the Union Navy in 1863. Several artifacts salvaged from the river are on display. (None of them are in as good a shape as the things from the Cairo at Vicksburg; however, to be fair, the Yazoo River acted like a peat bog and kept things from decaying in the case of the Cairo.) Also on display is something that was mentioned at both Vicksburg and here: the early rendition of a torpedo. These weren’t fired from a boat from long distances the way our modern Navy does. As you can see by the reproduction (bottom right), it was crude and minimal, designed more to be placed in the river like a mine or thrown from the shoreline. So, so much history crammed into this one little state park. I was in heaven!!! COLLAGE: (Top left) Sleeping quarters for troops on alert for an attack, located inside the earthworks. (Top right) The open area with the mounds all around. (Bottom left) The view of the Ogeechee River from the top of one of the mounds where a cannon was housed. (Bottom right) An early-model “torpedo” for attacking ships.