Fort Pulaski and Friends!

On Saturday, we went to the Manning's home for a WHOPPING-HUGE breakfast!  Lisa and Stephen were so gracious to invite our crew over for a wonderful time of food, fellowship and fun!

I was having such a great time, that unfortunately, I did not take ONE picture!  Bummer!

Afterwards, we headed out to Tybee Island, outside of Savannah, to visit Fort Pulaski National Monument.  Count that for another Jr. Ranger badge!  And a really cool history lesson.  :)

I really dig the moat around the fort.  

And the draw-bridge isn't half bad either!

It was creepy walking through some of the old tunnels.

Obviously, Zach was LOVING this experience.  :)  The boy soaks up history!

What boy wouldn't like an old Civil War fort, creepy tunnels and cannons? HA!

In this prison, the Confederate soldiers were 'housed' here.  On each bunk, 4 men had to share a bed and ONE blanket.  They also had one meal a day of hardtack and rats!  They would eat anything they could get their hands on.  Just awful.

Construction on the fort began in 1829, and by 1860, was not yet completed.  It took $1 million and
25 million bricks to build.  They thought it was 'invincible' and 'as strong as the Rocky Mountains.'

Seriously, these places bring out the testosterone is ALL of us!  :)  hee...hee..

The south learned a hard lesson here at Fort Pulaski.  What they thought would be such an indestructible fortress, actually crumbled  and was taken over by the Union soldiers.
This was the last fort built with bricks.

This volunteer shared his own stories of his grandfather's grandfather that was in the Confederate Army, who fought in many battles, including Gettysburg.  So interesting.

Here is the wall that was breached from the Union, on Tybee Island, over 2 miles away with a rifled cannon shot.  They actually shot 5,275 cannons at this fort, in 30 hours, and you can still see the damage!

This breached wall was rebuilt, but you can see the darker red brick.  Imagine, all of those bricks gone, piled up, and actually making a 'bridge' for the Union soldiers to fight their way inside and take over.

Look at all the damage.  Can you see the 7 and L pattern they were trying to position the shots?  They new this shooting pattern would break down the wall.  (Funny, I just thought they put in a cannon ball and shot it!  There were engineering methods used, even in a breach!)  

Yeah Jr. Rangers!  You're awesome!

Blessings,

Steph