Savannah is way too close to the beach not to visit. It was a cold and blustery day but we had Kismet along so we managed to survive a lunch outside thanks to the patio heaters. We all had soup. Lobster bisque was my pick!!
Tybee Island was pretty lonely on this November day but I could imagine it in the summer months and the lighthouse was impressive! After leaving the beach, we stopped at Fort Pulaski.
Our timing was impeccable as we arrived just in time to hear an excellent presentation from the NPS Ranger. We learned about the systems of forts built as a response to the War of 1812. Shoreline defense was fragmented and weak when the British burned the nation's capital during the War of 1812. In response to lessons learned , a new coastal defense system was designed to protect critical United States shorelines. Fort Pulaski National Monument is one of the best preserved forts in this defense system.
Close to 200 forts were envisioned to guard the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, however only 30 were built between 1816-1867. Some structures were never completed in part because of events at Fort Pulaski during the Civil War. The Confederates took over the fort and the Union gathered at Tybee Island in hopes of taking it. The Confederates naively thought that the distance of five miles was enough to protect them but it turned out the Union Army had new cannon technology. These new cannons utilized rifling and could bombard from a much further distance. The Union Army prevailed after 30 hours of constant bombardment and the Confederates surrendered. After the war, it was obvious that these forts were no longer providing the protection they did when planned in 1816.
The fort is named after Casimir Pulaski who fought in the Revolutionary War. In Savannah, a large monument commemorates his sacrifice fighting for the city. He was the man who provided the American colonists with their first true legion on horseback, cementing his place as "The Father of the American Cavalry."
Angie pointed out the Casimir Pulaski Day is a local holiday celebrated in Illinois on the first Monday of March. One of our podcasts suggested that there was some evidence the Pulaski may have been born intersex. So I did some research and found this on Wikipedia.
“In 1853, remains found on a bluff above Augustine Creek on Greenwich Plantation were believed to be the general's. These bones are interred at the Casimir Pulaski Monument in Savannah and then exhumed in 1996 and examined during a forensic study. The eight-year examination DNA analysis, ended inconclusively, although the skeleton was consistent with Pulaski's age and occupation. A healed wound on the skull's forehead was consistent with historical records of an injury Pulaski sustained in battle, as was a bone defect on the left cheekbone, believed to have been caused by a benign tumor. In 2005, the remains were reinterred in a public ceremony with full military honors including Pulaski's induction into the Georgia Military Hall of Fame. A later study funded by the Smithsonian, the results of which were released in 2019, concluded from the DNA of his grandniece, known injuries, and physical characteristics, that the skeleton was likely Pulaski's. The skeleton has a number of typically female features, which has led to the hypothesis that Pulaski may have been female or intersex. A documentary based on the Smithsonian study suggests that Pulaski's hypothesized intersex condition could have been caused by congenital adrenal hyperplasia where a fetus with female chromosomes is exposed to a high level of testosterone in utero and develops partially male genitals. This analysis was based on the skeleton's female pelvis, facial structure and jaw angle, in combination with the fact that Pulaski identified as and lived as male."
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5 miles? 5 miles !!