{"id":617,"slug":"fort-pulaski-national-monument-georgia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["On the morning of April 10, 1862, Captain Quincy A. Gillmore opened fire on Fort Pulaski from eleven batteries on Tybee Island, and for thirty hours his guns threw more than five thousand shots and shells at brick walls seven and a half feet thick. The Confederate garrison had been assured the range was impossible — no gun in the world could hurt masonry from that distance, and the phrase in circulation was that the Federals might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains. At two o'clock on April 11 they hauled down the flag. Gillmore's experimental rifled cannon had breached the wall to the magazine, and every masonry fort in America was obsolete.","The war's second entry at Pulaski was quieter and worse. In October 1864 the fort received the Immortal Six Hundred — Confederate officer prisoners held in open retaliation, on rations of moldy bread and soured pickles, until scurvy and dysentery did what the bombardment had not. Thirteen died inside the walls and were buried outside them."]},{"heading":"The documented record","paragraphs":["The fort itself was eighteen years in the building — construction ran 1829 to 1847 on Cockspur Island in the Savannah River, with a young engineering lieutenant named Robert E. Lee among its officers — and was named for Casimir Pulaski, the Polish cavalryman killed at the 1779 siege of Savannah. Georgia's militia seized it bloodlessly in January 1861, before the state had even seceded. After Gillmore's guns took it back, the 48th New York Infantry garrisoned it and left a footnote baseball historians claim: a game played on the parade ground in April 1862, among the earliest documented in the South.","Union occupation gave the island one more register: Cockspur became a destination for enslaved people escaping to federal lines, and the fort today carries a listing in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The same walls that failed against rifled shot sheltered a different kind of passage."]},{"heading":"What witnesses file","paragraphs":["The reports cluster where the record is darkest. Visitors describe sudden, sourceless grief in the casemates — some weeping without warning — and the apparitions of soldiers, Union and Confederate both, reported on the ramparts and in the passages. Phantom gunfire is filed often enough that investigators note when it fails to correspond with any demonstration firing. And more than one account reports the sounds of a baseball game — shouts, the crack of a bat — coming from an empty courtyard, which the 48th New York file makes at least narratively tidy.","A park ranger's own story is the file's most specific: drumming the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' at a ceremony, he was videotaped by a spectator standing beside him; playback carried a second voice humming along, and neither man had produced it. Another visitor reports a Union soldier on the northeast bastion at 5:30 in the evening, an hour after the fort had locked. The ranger corps does not certify any of it; it does not exactly deny it, either."]},{"heading":"What remains","paragraphs":["The monument is intact: moat, demilune, drawbridge, and the casemates that held the Six Hundred. The breach the rifled guns opened in 1862 is still legible in the repaired wall — the scar the whole artillery revolution left in brick. Thirteen graves of the starved prisoners lie outside it. Visitors keep filing the rest."]}],"name":"Fort Pulaski National Monument","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","CIVIL_WAR","MILITARY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD","HAUNTED"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"A historic site in Savannah, Georgia, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Fort Pulaski National Monument is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. HauntHunt files it with dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 3 documented facts, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":"101 Fort Pulaski Road, Savannah, Georgia.","city":"Savannah","county":"Chatham","state":"Georgia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":32.012457,"lon":-81.194157,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 01GA01, source row 2. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":69.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":4029,"type":"HAUNTING","description":"Local lore describes apparitions of soldiers and prisoners in the fort’s casemates—retold in Savannah ghost-tour coverage. The account has been recorded since 20th century. The reports at Fort Pulaski National Monument are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. The haunting is unproven and unfired: it keeps showing up for work anyway.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":"20th century","approx_date":null,"confidence":0.3,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Georgia haunted places listicle","url":"https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/georgia/haunted-places-in-ga/","publisher":"OnlyInYourState","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Fort Pulaski National Monument's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Fort Pulaski National Monument is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Fort Pulaski fell in April 1862 to rifled cannon; it later held the \"Immortal 600\" Confederate prisoners deliberately starved in 1864–65. The documented date is 1862-04-10–1865-03-01. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'Fort Pulaski National Monument' documents the entry. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1862-04-10","date_end":"1865-03-01","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Fort Pulaski National Monument","url":"https://www.nps.gov/fopu","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Local lore describes apparitions of soldiers and prisoners in the fort’s casemates—retold in Savannah ghost-tour coverage. The account has been recorded since 20th century. The reports at Fort Pulaski National Monument are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. 'Georgia haunted places listicle' carries the account. The legend does what legends do — it explains the place in a way the records can't.","earliest":"20th century","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Georgia haunted places listicle","url":"https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/georgia/haunted-places-in-ga/","publisher":"OnlyInYourState","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[],"events":[{"name":"Siege of Fort Pulaski","type":"BATTLE","date_start":"1862-04-10","date_end":"1862-04-11","description":"In April 1862, Union batteries opened on Fort Pulaski with experimental rifled cannon — and breached its 'impregnable' walls in thirty hours. The fort's fall closed Savannah's port and, more importantly, ended the age of masonry fortifications worldwide; visitors can still see shells embedded in the walls and the breach scars the NPS chose never to repair.","evidence":"BATTLE","source":{"name":"Fort Pulaski National Monument","url":"https://www.nps.gov/fopu","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"name":"The Immortal 600","type":"PRISON","date_start":"1864-10-01","date_end":"1865-03-01","description":"From October 1864, Fort Pulaski held part of the 'Immortal 600' — Confederate officers deliberately placed on starvation rations and within artillery range as retaliation for Union POW conditions. The officers refused to renounce the Confederacy; the ordeal meant to break them made them martyrs instead, and it remains one of the fort's darkest chapters.","evidence":"PRISON","source":{"name":"Fort Pulaski National Monument","url":"https://www.nps.gov/fopu","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},{"name":"Fort Pulaski National Monument","url":"https://www.nps.gov/fopu","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Georgia haunted places listicle","url":"https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/georgia/haunted-places-in-ga/","publisher":"OnlyInYourState","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The Savannah fort—where the 1862 siege fell and the freedmen enlisted.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 01GA01, source row 2. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 4; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"place_type","existing_value":"HISTORIC_SITE","incoming_value":"FORT","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The brick fort that fell to rifled cannon—and the prison that starved the Immortal 600.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"full_description","existing_value":"Fort Pulaski is the Cockspur Island fortress—the 1862 battle site where the documented UGRR history and the freedmen’s enlistment are preserved.","incoming_value":"Fort Pulaski is the Cockspur Island fortress that fell to rifled artillery in April 1862—and later held the \"Immortal 600\" Confederate prisoners starved in retaliation. The documented suffering underlies persistent haunted lore.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 01GA01, source row 2. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"Lore enrichment; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Fort Pulaski National Monument","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pulaski_National_Monument","desc":"Monument in Georgia, US","extract":"Fort Pulaski National Monument is located on Cockspur Island between Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia. It preserves Fort Pulaski, the place where the Union Army successfully tested rifled cannons in 1862, the success of which rendered brick fortifications obsolete. The fort was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/FtPulaskiInside.jpg/330px-FtPulaskiInside.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":93,"lat":32.02722222,"lon":-80.89027778},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":3,"legends":1,"entities":0,"sources":5}}