Marvel Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Tom Brennan. This is a pic I took a few years ago (early '70s) of Fort Pulaski. The fort is a few miles east of Savannah, Georgia. It was built just before the act of northern agression took place. It contained more than 20 million bricks. In 1862, the Union Army used their new rifled cannon on it for about 36 hours. The Confederates surrendered the fort. This image is made up of three separate shots I scanned and placed together. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Marvel---Thanks, nice picture. I need to learn to do make panoramas. Yeah, military engineers freaked when Gilmore's rifles drilled right through the masonry of Pulaski. Masonry forts were primarily intended to be used against warships but by the 1860s those that could be approached by land were very vulnerable to rifled cannon. Union rifles on Morris Island turned Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor into a heap of rubbish. Earthen forts could take much more of a beating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Why were land cannons more damaging than ship cannons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 That's practically in my back yard seeings how I live in the metro Savannah area. The Fort has undergone some major changes since that photo. There are pavilions inside that are used for tour groups as re-enactors (sp?) re-create not only life at the Fort, but life during that period. IMHO the Fort does an excellent job of this and raised enough money to preserve the Fort and it's surroundings. One of the remaining big cannons is still shot during re-creation of retreat. Funny but true story told to me by Jimmy - a friend of mine whom I work with.... Jimmy is a Civil War re-enactor that "works" at the Fort. His rank is Sargent and he's assigned to the artillery battery. One evening they were in the process of retiring the flag and at the end of the bugle making retreat, Jimmy gave the command to "FIRE". Now, Jimmy was down inside the Fort and naturally, the guys on the cannon were up top. The soldier on the firing lanyard says something back to Jimmy like, "But Sargent..." and Jimmy interrupts him and says, "FIRE!" Again the soldier tries to ask Jimmy something and Jimmy barks back, "Soldier...I ordered you to fire that cannon, so FIRE it! That's an order!" The soldier salutes, pulls the cord and Ka - BOOM!! Moments later Jimmy finds out that what the soldier was trying to tell him was that at that moment there was a Russian freighter heading up river and it was right along side of the Fort at the closest point they can get. Which is pretty damn close. Now, Soviet Russia had just "fallen" and this was one of the first Russian ships to come into the port of Savannah. To make matters worse, the sailors on the Russian ship had assembled on deck to see what was going on over at the fort. And just as they were all lined up on the railing...Ka - BOOM!! This cannon goes off in their direction! Jimmy said the guys on the cannon saw a whole lot of sailers hit the deck and several of them running. A few days later, Jimmy gets a letter (has it framed now) from the State Department asking that they not fire on ships. I still LMAO when I think about Jimmy telling that story. Tom Adams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Moon---Rifled cannon were new at the time and ships were still primarily armed with smoothbore guns. Rifled cannon were much more destructive than smoothbores, having a higher muzzle velocity and a greater weight of shot for a given bore, the enlongated projectile of the rifled gun being larger than the spherical projectile of a smoothbore. Also in a gun duel a fort generally had advantages over ships. The fort was a steadier gun platform, had better protection and was unsinkable. Warships could seldom slug it out with forts. Especially given that most Civil War warships were unarmored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Moon---Here's photo taken during the war of a naval guncrew on the USS Mendota. The gun is a Dahlgren and is notable for it's soda bottle shape, the breech being especially thick to handle strong powder charges. This is a smoothbore gun that fired round shot, both solid shot and hollow exploding shell. As you can see these fellas have practically no protection and would be quite vulnerable in action against a fort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Tom, that is just too damn funny. I but the russian sailer's didn't think so however... TBrennan, thanks for that explanation and photo... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 When I did that photo I didn't have a tripod. I just took a pic, swiveled a bit to the right, etc. There is software that is supposed to be able to take images and stitch them together, but I don't know how well it works. m00n, If you look at that photo, on the right side are huge timbers leaning against the side. They had much more dirung the Civil War, and it was used to protect those inside the fort. When the round cannon balls would come over the wall, they would bounce and roll across the infield. Hopefully, they would then just bounce off the timbers. I've got some shots of the stairwells, which are circular. They have big stone slabs, like wedges that are spiralled around. The effect is just like more modern circular stairs. I'll try and dig those out and scan them. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Marvil.... Share the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 m00n, This is from Ft. Popham, up in Maine. Mostly made of stone, but the stairs are built the same as the ones at Ft. Pulaski. I can't find it right now, but this was handy. It shows the stone wedges of the stairs. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandi Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 how or why did this post start? Interesting, I have been there several times. My wife is from Savannah (well, Richmond Hill actually) and I was stationed there for five years. I like hanging out at the fort when they are doing re-enactments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandi Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Tom, what year did that happen? I remember seeing a Soviet ship come into port. It was the strangest thing seeing that big white ship with the sickle and hammer, we were on river street and we all just stood there staring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Mandi, Partly because TBrennan started with some of his Civil War pics. A good friend of mine, Roger Durham, was curator at Ft. Morris, south of Savannah. It is an earthworks fort. Here's more of Ft. Popham, Maine: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Here's a picture I took of the ditch at Fort Erie in Ontario. A bastion in the foreground and the hornwork at the far end of the ditch. During the War of 1812 the Americans held the fort. A British attack column stormed the bastion in the foreground and was on the point of capturing the fort when a wounded American oficer named McDonough fired his pistol into the powder chest on the bastion and blew it, along with several score Irishmen in The King's Service, sky high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Tom, Do you think they'll make us start our own board just to get all these pics off of here? Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Nice pictures Marvel. Here's the gatehouse at Fort Niagara in New York. During the War of 1812 the Brits stormed this fort by way of this gatehouse by means of a sneaky night attack. The Brit commander took his men's flints away so they couldn't fire their muskets and give things away, the fort was captured with the bayonet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Marvel---I dunno, at least we're not flaming anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 It is always amazing to me to think these things were all built with mostly hand labor. No tractors, bulldozers, backhoes, etc. Makes me tired just thinking about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thors1982 Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 hehe I live in Pulaski, VA :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 19, 2004 Author Share Posted March 19, 2004 m00n, I found the scan I did of the steps at Ft. Pulaski. Pretty cool. I ought to find out how much each of these pieces weigh. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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