"Entering and Inside the Fort" Fort Pulaski National Monument Travelogue by grandmaR

Shows the area for NPS talks.

Bridge over the moat

Although this looks like an actual drawbridge, when we actually looked at it, we could see that it could not really be raised. This is the first drawbridge to the demilune area. From the NPS Self Guided Tour (about the Sally Port Drawbridge):

"#1. THE SALLY PORT. The fort entrance is equipped with many devices for last-ditch defense. The massive drawbridge, weighing several tons, is raised by winches and counterweights which may be seen in the rooms on either side of the entrance. As the drawbridge rises, a strong wooden grill, called the portcullis, drops through a slot in the granite lintel overhead. The heart-pine doors are studded with iron bolts to make it difficult to chop through them with axes. Within the sally port are two recesses for the protection of guards and 10 slits, or loopholes, through the side walls for small arms fire. In time of great danger, the inner doors could also be shut and barred."

Soldier's beds in the Gorge Section

From the NPS Self Guided Tour:

"#2 THE GORGE. The western, or rear, section of Fort Pulaski is known as the gorge ("throat") because it contains the sally port, or entrance of the fort. The living quarters are also in the gorge. Enlisted men occupied the barracks rooms, or casemates, to the north of the entrance; officers were quartered in the casemates to the south of the entrance. The word casemate means a bomb-proof shelter. Each of the arched chambers surrounding the parade ground is a casemate. During the Civil War, when a large number of troops was stationed at Fort Pulaski, most of the enlisted men were quartered in the casemated gun galleries or in tents. Originally, all of the casemates were closed in with wooden fronts to provide shelter from rain and cold. The parade ground, on which the men exercised and drilled, is 2-1/2 acres in extent. The covered veranda, which runs the length of the gorge, is an unusual feature in fort architecture."

Fireplace in the casements

From the NPS website:

"#3. BARRACKS ROOMS. When Georgia troops seized Fort Pulaski in 1861, the barracks rooms were unfurnished. The Confederates built triple-decker bunks against the walls and filled mattress covers with hay from the parade ground. They brought chairs, tables, and camp cots from their homes in Savannah. After the surrender, Federal troops added many items of furniture obtained by raiding plantations along the coast. The rooms were lighted by candles, coal-oil lanterns, and lamps. The large fireplace in each room was equipped with a crane and other devices for cooking, but both Confederate and Union soldiers did most of their cooking on field ranges. While walking through the barracks rooms, note how the loopholes in the rear wall are variously angled to give a wide range of fire."

Fort Entrance

This sign explained the Demilune, and in the background is the Sally Port. The Sally Port drawbridge is now just a bridge over the moat. The Demilune is an underground or mound area which is triangular and is on the side of the fort away from the Atlantic. From the NPS self guided tour.

"#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."