- Federal Batteries on Tybee Island
State Historical Marker
- Located on US 80 east of Lazaretto Creek on Tybee
Island
(Text)
- FEDERAL BATTERIES ON
TYBEE ISLAND
Between February 21 and April 9, 1862,
Federal troops under Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore erected 36 guns
in 11 batteries, extending eastwardly on Tybee Island from Lazeretto
[sic] Creek opposite Fort Pulaski. Two of the Federal batteries
consisted of rifled cannon. The work was carried on under cover
of darkness and was concealed by day behind a camouflage of branches
and brushwood. The Fort was defended by a garrison of 385 men
under Col. Charles H. Olmstead of Savannah. Twenty of the 48
guns faced the Federal batteries, but when the bombardment of
the fort began from the shore the defenders of the Fort found
that they were of insufficient range to damage the attackers.
After a continuous bombardment of 30 hours the walls were breached
and the Fort was surrendered. It was the first effective use
of rifled cannon against a masonry fortification and thus marked
an epoch in military history.
- 025-60 GEORGIA HISTORICAL
COMMISSION 1958
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