Day 12 (November 13th)

Today started out with a drive and visit to Fort Pulaski. This fort was made in the early 19th century and designed by the famous Robert E. Lee. It consisted of over 25 Million Bricks. Fort Pulaski was taken early in the civil war by the confederates, and reinforced to be extremely stable.

When it came time, the Union marched down into the neighboring Tybee Island, and stealthily set up an artillery encampment surrounding it. They demanded an unconditional surrender, which was denied, and then attacked. The union had far more guns than the confederates, mostly massive13-inch howitzers and field guns. However, they also had some of the first rifled cannons, which basically means that grooves are bored into the barrel to curve the projectile. This increases power and accuracy.

Guess which weapon was more useful? If you guessed the rifled cannons, you’re right. They were actually the only guns to cause significant damage to the fort. It was taken the second day when a shell nearly detonated the fort’s ammunition supply. The entire battle only had 3 significant casualties and one death, which is relatively tiny compared to other battles.

The grounds of the fort are actually being used as the set for a movie about the woman hung for the Lincoln conspiracies; the fort is the backdrop for the gallows.

We walked around in and outside of the fort, watched a musket demonstration, eyed the cannons and filled out Greta’s junior ranger sheet. Then we left for the Tybee island lighthouse. We essentially went there for the experience of walking up it. It was 178 steps, which was no biggie for us after the 350 to get to the top of the Capitol Dome. The view was pretty nice, but was nothing compared to the CN Tower that we had just been up except here you could walk outside.

After going home and taking a nap, we went on a nighttime ghost tour. We pretty much walked around cemeteries and hotels and listened to spooky ghost stories, some of which were hard to believe. We also walked through the Julia Gordon Lowe house for the 2nd time, and listened to personal experiences with Julia’s Grandma’s ghost. Apparently she loves to ride the elevator and whisper in ears. I didn’t believe much of it, but Mom said that I was doomed to be visited by a ghost if I didn’t believe. Hmmm…