Fort Pulaski National Monument

Acting Brigadier General Quincy Adams Gillmore led the Union artillery attack on Fort Pulaski. Because the US Army originally built the fort, he knew its strengths and weaknesses and targeted the angle in front of you. Within range of Tybee Island—where he positioned artillery—it is directly in line with the fort's powder magazine. Gillmore's decision had the desired effect. Rifled artillery solid shots and exploding shells demolished Fort Pulaski's seven and one-half foot thick, solid brick walls during a 30-hour bombardment. Once considered unbreachable, the fort's walls proved no match for the spinning projectiles of this new technology.
Colonel Charles H. Olmstead surrendered the Confederate fort before the incoming shells exploded the powder magazine, which would have destroyed the entire garrison.
"[The] steel pointed shot bored through the brick walls as if they were so much paper... The science of war has leaped a century forward and all are behind the age!"Captain George A. MercerConfederate Army, 1st Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry
"The result of this bombardment must cause... a change in the construction of fortifications... No works of stone or brick can resist the impact of rifled artillery of heavy caliber."
Major General David HunterUnion Army, Department



of the South

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Federal Siege Batteries
A Devastating Bombardment
Through the Thick Brick Wall
The Breached Wall
Fort at Play
Store House
Southwest Bastion
Southwest Magazine
Shifting Shoreline
The Breached Wall

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