Fort McAllister State Park

Today we worked on getting our school and work done so that we could go tour the fort in the afternoon.

We didn't get there quite as early as we would have liked, but we were able to catch a gentleman there that we had heard was a real treat to see and we were NOT disappointed. He was a treasure trove of information about the fort and events surrounding it. He said he had been doing "this" for 40 years. Main story is that 4000 of General Sherman's troops attacked the 200 men who had stayed behind to guard the fort when the city of Savannah and the rest of the Confederate troops had been evacuated. The ground fight didn't last long and the fort fell on December 13, 1864. Sherman now had control of the Ogeechee River and an avenue to the sea. The fort was actually burned out and mostly destroyed by the Union troops, but because there were actual photos, it was able to be recreated fairly accurately, a project started initially by Henry Ford in the 1940's, I think.

We got to see this historian demonstrate the firing of the musket.

He said the enlisted men lived in tents for the first two years, but then when those wore out and they couldn't get canvas to make more, the men built their own little huts like those seen above. Each had a little wood stove, bunks and a table and chair.

Turns out there was a geocache at the fort and you
had to go to four different points and solve a little
clue and get 4 numbers that would open a combination
lock on the cache which was located in the museum.
That was fun!

Still some "autumn" color here...

The officer's quarters building

Actually thought this spanish moss mixed with the
maple leaves was quite pretty.

As parents, if we had been willing to swear he was 16,
 the historian guy said the Confederate army
would've taken him.

Sky said this one is just a little big.