Ghosts of Fort Pulaski

Posted: 11.14.2024 | Updated: 11.14.2024

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia and Fort Pulaski has been its staunch defender for generations. British forces captured the city during the War for Independence, and the Americans subsequently failed to recapture it. 

However, when America gained its independence, the city flourished. But terrible hardships in the decades leading up to the Civil War followed with fervor. Disease, fires, and hurricanes nearly destroyed the town several times over. Fort Pulaski was built during this tenuous time, and many say the spirits within still protect the Hostess City Of The South. 

Miraculously, the city was spared by General Sherman’s “March to the Seas” scorched earth campaign. He found it too beautiful to destroy. But, the war found other ways to decimate the city. The believed impenetrable Fort Pulaski fell and fell quickly, cutting off commerce from the city. 

Today, the city strives. But Fort Pulaski still suffers from defeat in ways that you could not possibly imagine. But those on the other side of the veil can.

Is Fort Pulaski Haunted?

When Union forces captured Fort Pulaski, many Confederate soldiers were wounded within its fortified walls. As the war progressed, the fort became a prison for 600 Confederate soldiers who endured rancid food and horrid conditions, a primordial feeding ground for lost souls to remain trapped in an unending war.

Let us enter the trenches of fact and fiction, the endless war of life and death. But there are many more haunts and hauntings to find in the city of Savannah. For those of you yearning for more spooks and scares, book our Savannah Ghost Tour, Savannah Terrors.

Discover the gruesome nightmare of deadly diseases, grave misfortunes, and horrific ends that built the city.

Fort Pulaski: Cockspur Island’s Last Defense

After the War of 1812, the United States was eager to upgrade its coastal defenses against future foreign attacks. Forty new forts were commissioned, including Pulaski, which was named after a Polish soldier who founded the American cavalry during the Revolutionary War. He died during the failed siege of Savannah in 1778.

Construction began in 1829, and early portions of it were supervised by a young lieutenant who was fresh out of the U.S. Military Academy, Robert E. Lee. After 18 years, $1 million, and 25 million bricks, the fort was completed in 1847.

With walls 7.5 feet thick and nearly 150 cannons mounted in defense, many believed the fort to be invincible. “You might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains” was a term often used in reference to the impenetrable fort. However, Fort Pulaski had little opportunity to demonstrate its defensive capabilities as the years rolled by until the Civil War.

Just a week after Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, the governor of Georgia ordered the state militia to siege the fort from the hands of the Union. Two weeks later, Georgia seceded.

By 1862, the Union had fortified a plan to take back the fort, and in turn, crippling the Confederacy’s supply chain through Savannah. They set up a bombardment of rifled artillery that was yet to be used on the banks of Tybee Island.

There, they launched an assault for artillery fire for 30 hours straight, cutting through walls that were once believed to be indestructible. Dozens of Confederate soldiers were injured, but only a single soldier died from the Union side.

Prisoners in Life and Death

After the siege, the fort was used to keep 600 Confederate soldiers prisoner, known as the Immortal Six Hundred. They were given little in the way of clothes, little in the way of blankets, and rotten food to survive on.

Thirteen men would end up dying at Fort Pulaski, and it’s possible they’re still there to this day. 

One could argue that the Immortal 600 Hundred had endured more agony than any other soldier during the war. They faced starvation, dehydration, scurvy, dysentery, and god knows what else. Tortue would be an apt word to use for what those men went through.

The feeling of despair and dread must have hung in the air like fog, which is exactly what visitors have described feeling in certain parts of Fort Pulaski. Some people have said they became overwhelmed with intense feelings of suffering and anguish, so much so that they burst into tears.

Other people have allegedly seen the apparitions of soldiers patrolling the grounds or perhaps preparing for an attack.

There’s no sure way to know the legitimacy of these reports, Fort Pulaski itself has said it has no ghost stories.

But perhaps haunts can be found in other places, perhaps on the very islands where the siege took place.

The Hauntings of Cockspur and Tybee Island.

Cockspur and Tybee Island seem to be almost polar opposites. One was used to help fortify our nation, while the other has been a beacon of recreation for the people of Georgia for years.

But what they seem to have in common are their alleged haunted lighthouses.

The Cockspur Lighthouse was built in 1855 and stood right in the middle of the bombardment of Union and Confederate forces during the Siege of Fort Pulaski. For some miraculous reason, the lighthouse didn’t get a scratch.

The lighthouse continued to shine its beacon for oncoming ships until 1949 when the Coast Guard abandoned it. A decade later, park services obtained the lighthouse as part of the Fort Pulaski National Monument so visitors could marvel at its stature. However, since 2015, the lighthouse has been closed to all.

Local legends of Civil War soldiers haunting the lighthouse have been around for decades, and some locals seem to fear even the slightest mention of ghosts. Until the lighthouse becomes available to the public again, there’s not much beacon of truth to shine on this tale.

The Tybee Lighthouse Station has been in use since its construction in 1736, making it one of the oldest lighthouses in Georgia. However, it must be said that the lighthouse tower has been replaced and repaired many times during its nearly 300-year service.

With such a long history, it’s no wonder that the public has documented some bizarre occurrences. People have claimed to see the apparition of perhaps a lighthouse keeper from days gone by. Others have sworn they’ve heard whistling coming from nowhere. And perhaps the most bizarre sighting has been the spirits of young children.

It’s scary to think that children have died here at some point.

Haunted Savannah

But, as always, Savannah has plenty more scares to offer you if you dare to go looking for them. What’s a better place to start your search than our own website, where we have plenty for you to read that will keep you up at night?

For those of you wanting to do more than just read about ghosts, then book a walking Savannah ghost tour in Savannah, GA with Savannah Terrors.

Keep reading our blog for more content on Savannah’s most haunted places! 

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Sources:

https://visitsavannah.com/article/history-savannah

https://npshistory.com/publications/fopu/index.htm

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/fort-pulaski

https://www.nps.gov/fopu/learn/historyculture/the-immortal-six-hundred.htm

http://hauntedhouses.com/georgia/fort-pulaski/

https://www.tybeeisland.com/cockspur-lighthouse/

http://www.lighthousedigest.com/Digest/StoryPage.cfm?StoryKey=457

https://www.wsav.com/news/local-news/savannah-on-list-of-americas-most-haunted-vacation-spots