This Site became the "platform" from which the Union Army mounted 36 pieces of heavy artillery in early 1862. The bombardment that began on April 10 led to the surrender of FortPulaski 30 hours later. The placement of these batteries can be found on the map provided.

Map showing of the positions used by the U.S. forces in the reduction of Fort Pulaski on April 10 & 11, 1862, a turning point in U.S. Military History.

This image depicts a 13-inch mortar firing on Fort Pulaski from Battery Stanton. Union leaders mistakenly believed that these 8.5 ton mortars would crush the Confederates into submission.

The difficulty of moving these heavy pieces from the naval vessels to this area was described by Gen. Gillmore.

"No eye except an eye-witness can form any but a faint conception of the Herculean labor by which mortars of eight and one half tons and columbiads... were moved in the dead of night, over a narrow causeway, bordered by swamps on either side, and liable at any moment to be over turned and buried in mud beyond reach."

"Two hundred and fifty men were barely sufficient to move a single piece, on sling-carts. They were not allowed to speak above a whisper, and were guided by the notes of a whistle."

Battery Park's recreated gun battery marks the center of the Union lines. Between February and April 1862, eleven gun batteries were erected on Tybee Island. The cannon provided to Battery Park is an original from the battle.

The Battle of Fort Pulaski featured the first significant use of rifled artillery in combat. Prior to the battle, no one could predict the impact of these new weapons. General Robert E. Lee told Colonel Olmstead, the commander of Fort Pulaski, that federal guns on Tybee

Island "will make it very warm for you with shells...but they cannot breach your walls at that distance." The power of rifled artillery would prove Lee wrong.

The Union Commander wrote, "The result of this bombardment must cause the change in the construction of fortifications as radical as that... of the conflict between the Monitor and the Merrimac. No works of stone or brick can resist the impact of rifled artillery."

Spiralled grooves in the interior of the rifled cannons imparted stabilizing spin to their projectiles. This tight spinning action dramatically improved the range, accuracy and hitting power of artillery.

The Cockspur Island Lighthouse, located in front of Battery Park, was built in 1856. Six years later it was a silent witness to the Battle of Fort Pulaski. On April 10-11, 1862, the lighthouse was located midway between Union forces here on Tybee Island and Confederate forces inside Fort Pulaski. During the longe-range bombardment, more than 5,000 shells passed over the Lighthouse. The Cockspur Lighthouse survived the battle and remains today as one of only five lighthouses in Georgia.

The 46-foot tall beacon marks the South Channel of the Savannah River. The Lighthouse is surrounded by water at high tide and can be reached only by boat. A closer look at the Lighthouse can be observed from the Fort's Overlook Trail.

Fort Pulaski Video