Fort Pulaski

This is a picture of Fort Pulaski. This fort at the beginning of the Civil War was held by the Confederate army, and was designed by Robert E. Lee before the war. Before the war, Robert E. Lee had graduated from West Point and was an engineer. He actually designed and assisted in building forts along the East Coast, including Pulaski. He even said that Pulaski would never fall. However, he said this before the invention of rifled cannons. When the Union army attacked Pulaski, they bombarded the fort from a distance from two of the four sides. This is one of the sides that were hit. The Confederate commander of the fort stood his ground for a long time and was determined to hold the fort, but was not ready for the accuracy that the Union artillery had with their rifled cannons. They knew the overall design of the fort and knew that if they knocked down a corner of the fort, they would have straight shots at the powder magazine. They succeeded in knocking down one of the walls, and began to fire into the parade grounds inside of the fort. However, the Confederates did not surrender until a shell burst in the doorway of the powder magazine, which at the time was full of powder. There was enough powder that if exploded, would have leveled the entire fort. After the Confederates surrendered, the Union army used the fort as a prison and a barracks for Union troops.