Ft Pulaski - Drafted by Napoleon's Chief Engineer
N 32° 01.623 W 080° 53.442
17S E 510320 N 3543439
Simon Bernard, Napoleon's chief engineer, drafted this fort during his trip to America to assist the US Army in planning coast defenses
Waymark Code: WM703H
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 08/12/2009
Views: 11
This information is from the American Guide Series book Georgia: A Guide to Its Towns and Countryside published in 1940. It is unclear what year Simon Bernard made the drafts, but it was between 1812 and 1829. Little other information about this incident was found.
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"(57) Fort Pulaski National Monument embraces 537 cres of Cockspur Island and encloses one of the best preserved fortresses constructed for coas defense during the first half of the nineteenth century. The fort, facing seaward and guarding the entrance to the Savannah River, is encircled by two moats spanned by drawbridges. On the ground between the moats are breastworks, large earthen mounds overgrown with cactus, thorn ash, sweet myrtles, and cassena berries. Because of their crescent shape these mounds are called demilunes (Fr., half moons).
Entrance to the inner fort is through the portcullis, a dark, vaulted brick passage leading from the drawbridge. The massive brick walls of the fortification, from 7 to 11 feet thick and 32 feet high, enclose a green parade ground with officers' quarters, arched casemates, and bombproof chambers, each arranged to mount a cannon which was fored through an embrasure in the outer wall. The floors of these chambers are of Georgia pine, with all nailheads covered by wooden pegs to prevent them from giving off sparks. A four-foot layer of sand and shell covering the lead roof of the fort forms the terreplein, which serves to protect the casemates and to make an upper platform on which other guns can be mounted. In early days rain, filtering through the sand and shell, was stored in large cisterns as a water supply.
Fort Pulaski was the third fortification erected on Cockspur Island, the first being Fort Georga, a small block structure built in 1761 and dismantled in 1776 by American patriots. On the ruins of this garrison Fort Greene, a second small fort, was erected in 1794 but was swept away by the hurricane of 1804. The sites of these earlier structures cannot be definately identified because time and weather have altered the shape of the island. When the Federal government made a survey of the southeastern coast in 1812, Cockspur Island was selected as the site of a new fort because of its position at the mouth of the Savannah River. The first drafts were made by Napoleon's chief engineer, Simon Bernard, who came to America to assist in planning coast defenses, and actual construction begun in 1829. Building was principally under the direction of Lieutenant JFK Mansfield, assisted in preliminary surveys by Robert E Lee, than a young engineer recently graduated from West Point. Upon its completion in 1847 the fort was named for Casmir Pulaski, the Polish count who gave his services to America in the Revolution and was mortally wounded in the Siege of Savannah.
-Georgia: A Guide to Its Towns and Countryside, p264, 1940"
How identified / Comment identifie: History Book / Livre d'Histoire
Name of book, tour, or museum - Preciser le nom si livre, tour, ou musee: Georgia: A Guide to Its Towns and Countryside
Relevant Website / Site web pertinent: [Web Link]
Visiting Days or Hours / Heures d'ouverture: daylight, $3 per person
If "other" specify / preciser si "autre": Not listed
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