Fort Pulaski National Monument
Built between 1829 and 1847 on Cockspur Island, Fort Pulaski guarded the river approach to Savannah until April 1862, when Union rifled cannon breached its masonry walls in barely thirty hours and rendered brick forts obsolete overnight. From October 1864 the captured fort became a prison, most notoriously for the "Immortal Six Hundred," Confederate officers held under retaliatory conditions on rancid rations of moldy meal and soured pickles; scurvy and dysentery killed thirteen within the casemates. Visitors have since reported the sounds of screams, gunshots, and a small child crying drifting through the dark passages, along with sudden waves of despair and grief that overcome them in certain corners. Others describe apparitions of soldiers patrolling the ramparts, and one oft-repeated account tells of a Confederate lieutenant who rebuked costumed reenactors for failing to salute before vanishing into the air.
📍 41 Cockspur Island Rd, Savannah, GA 31410, Savannah, GA · Get directions