The Nation Unravels: Georgia Seizes Fort Pulaski, January 1861

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Crowds gathered around a monument in Savannah during a pro-secession celebration

Savannah residents parade through the city in November 1860. Tensions in Georgia were high before the first shot of the Civil War, and many were ready to leave the Union. Library of Congress.

Georgia seizes the fort

After South Carolina seceded in 1860, Georgia Governor Joseph Brown feared that U.S. troops would reinforce Fort Pulaski, which guarded Savannah and was only lightly held. He ordered the state militia to take it. On January 3, 1861, state troops marched in without firing a shot: the fort's entire garrison was an ordnance sergeant and a custodian. With the fort in state hands, the governor could be sure the vital port of Savannah would stay open to shipping.

A small steamboat began making the daily fourteen-mile run to the fort, bringing food, supplies and letters from grateful Savannah citizens. One woman sent the militia a "fine fruitcake iced beautifully and the word 'Secession' wrought in with sugar." Nearly three weeks later, Georgia voted to secede from the Union. Three months after that, the Civil War began.

Framed portrait of Charles Olmstead in a suit

Charles Olmstead. National Park Service.

"I can see it all now"

Charles Olmstead, a Savannah cotton merchant, marched into Fort Pulaski with the militia. Writing his memoirs fifty years later, he still remembered the day:

"With the dawn the air was filled with the sound of martial music and by 8 o'clock the commands that had been designated for the service were down at the wharf ready to embark on the little steamer....The balconies of the various stores and counting rooms overlooking the water were filled with people waving their handkerchiefs and cheering.... We reached Cockspur Island in due time, the little battalion was formed upon the North Wharf and then with drums beating, colors flying and hearts swelling we marched over the drawbridge, under the portcullis and into the fort. I can shut my eyes and see it all now, the proud step of officers and men, the colors snapping in the strong breeze from the ocean, the bright sunlight of the parade as we emerged from the shadow of the archway, the first glimpse of a gun through an open casemate door. One and all they were photographed on my mind and will never be forgotten."

The new garrison had its work cut out for it. The fort had been neglected for years: few of its cannons worked, the quarters were unlivable and the moat was choked with marsh grass and mud. The Georgians spent months making it habitable and defensible. In autumn 1861 Olmstead took command of Fort Pulaski, and he was still in command when it came under attack in 1862.

"Don't Tread on Me"

A secession banner showing a coiled rattlesnake

A banner carried in a procession on the evening of December 26, 1860, which helped stir secessionists toward seizing Fort Pulaski. National Park Service.

In the months before the war, pro-secession Savannahians paraded through the streets with banners like this one. Its motto, "Don't Tread on Me," harked back to the American Revolution, when South Carolina's Christopher Gadsden presented a similar flag to be flown on a naval vessel, and the rattlesnake stood for resistance to Britain. Ironically, both sides in the Civil War believed they were defending the Revolution's principles of freedom, independence and individual rights.

Paralysis in Washington

In January 1861, James Buchanan remained president as a lame duck until Abraham Lincoln's inauguration in March. A Pennsylvanian known for his Southern sympathies, Buchanan led a cabinet torn by division and weakened by one resignation after another. Since the Constitution was drafted 70 years earlier, the country had survived the rift between North and South through compromise. Afraid that firm action would provoke the South, Buchanan did little, hoping compromise would save the Union again. The Park Service judges that strategy a failure, and notes that historians consistently rank Buchanan among the worst presidents.