Fort Pulaski National Monument, GeorgiaLattimore, Ralston B.
History
Fort Pulaski National Monument, Georgia
Lattimore, Ralston B.
Fort Pulaski (Ga.) -- Siege, 1862; Fort Pulaski National Monument (Ga.)
17. THE DEMILUNE. The outwork often found at the rear of a large
fortification was originally constructed in a half-moon shape—hence
the name demilune. The principal earthworks in the demilune were built
in 1869, after the Civil War, and contain four powder magazines and
passageways connecting gun emplacements. The detached mound of earth
near the entrance to the demilune was erected in 1893 to protect an
underground chamber in which were placed the controls for electric
mines in the main channel of the Savannah River. This room is kept
locked today as it contains a large and dangerous electric transformer.
18. DAMAGED WALL. Evidence of the bombardment can best be seen from the
outside of the fort. The breach through the southeast angle was
repaired in 1862 with a bright-red brick, which, in contrast to the
original brown brick, shows the area of the damage wrought by the siege
guns. The southeastern wall facing Tybee is pock-marked by shell hits,
and many of the balls and projectiles are still embedded in the
brickwork.
[Illustration: _The damaged wall._]
19. THE CEMETERY. On the glacis, or north bank of the demilune moat, a
small cemetery was established when the fort was under construction.
Here, during the Civil War, both Confederate and Union soldiers were
temporarily buried. The 8-inch columbiad, which marks the site, was a
Confederate gun damaged in the bombardment.
20. THE WAVING GIRL. Just after the Civil War a girl was born on
Cockspur Island in the former quarters of the engineer officers. The
child was named Florence Martus, and her father was an ordnance
sergeant at Fort Pulaski. From the stone pier on the north shore of
Cockspur Island young Florence first saw the passing ships going with
cargoes to the farthest corners of the earth. The small child was
fascinated by these gay ships and waved her handkerchief. Sailors on
the ships waved back. A few years later, the child, then in her ’teens,
went to live with her brother, a light keeper, in a white cottage close
by the riverbank, about 5 miles up river from Fort Pulaski. From this
time on she waved at every ship that passed—a table cloth or towel by
day, a lantern by night. For more than 44 years she never missed a
ship, and each ship, as it passed, returned her salute with three
blasts of the whistle. Many stories were told of this small girl, who
finally grew to be a white-haired old lady. These legends of the Waving
Girl of Savannah are known in all the seas where ships have sailed.
[Illustration: _John Wesley Memorial erected in 1951 by the Georgia
Society, Colonial Dames of America, to commemorate the landing of
Wesley on Cockspur Island, February 6, 1736._]
_How to Reach the Monument_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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