Qualla: Fort McAllister

Fort McAllister: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US govt, Public domain. The Union Navy threw everything it had at Fort McAllister and the dirt just swallowed it. Seven times between 1862 and 1863 warships steamed up the Ogeechee River and pounded the low earthen walls with the heaviest ordnance of the Civil War, including the 15-inch guns of the ironclad monitor USS Montauk. After hours of bombardment, the smoke would clear to reveal the same muddy parapets, barely scratched, their defenders already shoveling fresh earth into whatever shallow craters the shells had gouged. Fort Pulaski, Savannah's massive brick fortress downriver, had crumbled in 36 hours under similar fire. Fort McAllister, built of nothing more than Georgia clay and marsh mud, proved that the future of coastal defense was dirt -- cheap, abundant, and nearly impossible to destroy with cannon fire.

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Image: US govt | Public domain

Fort McAllister: A Fortress of Mud and Genius

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kevinakling, CC BY-SA 4.0. Captain John McCrady designed Fort McAllister as part of Savannah's three-fort defense network, along with Fort Pulaski and Fort James Jackson. In 1861 General Robert E. Lee personally inspected the works and recommended strengthening them. McCrady thickened the earthen walls, wh...

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Image: Kevinakling | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort McAllister: Iron Against Earth

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kevinakling, CC BY-SA 4.0. The naval attacks began in 1862 and escalated dramatically in early 1863 when the Union sent its newest ironclad monitors. On January 27, 1863, the USS Montauk opened fire with its 11-inch and 15-inch Dahlgren guns -- the largest naval weapons of the war. The bombardment lasted f...

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Image: Kevinakling | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort McAllister: Fifteen Minutes

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Berean Hunter, Public domain. What the Navy could not accomplish in two years of shelling, the Army did in a quarter of an hour. On December 13, 1864, General William T. Sherman arrived at the Ogeechee River at the end of his March to the Sea. Fort McAllister was the last obstacle between his army and the sup...

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Image: Berean Hunter | Public domain

Fort McAllister: Cigars and Land Mines

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kevinakling, CC BY-SA 4.0. The evening after the battle produced one of the war's more remarkable scenes. Major Anderson, the defeated Confederate commander, was held at the McAllister family home, now General Hazen's headquarters. In a gesture of military courtesy, Hazen invited Anderson to join him and S...

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Image: Kevinakling | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort McAllister: From Ford to State Park

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Sherman's army burned Fort McAllister's bunkers and moved on. The earthworks slowly eroded back toward the marsh. In the late 1930s Henry Ford purchased the property and began restoration, drawn by his interest in Southern history and the Ogeechee River plantation landscape. Afte...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain