What Civil War era fort that is the best preserved?

It is a beautiful fort. The historic village makes a great supplement as well.
For a simple, square (with bastions) design, it has a real class about it. I also like the entry through the ravelin on the gorge of the fort.

I like the entrance too, but due to Covid the interior was closed to the public. I was able to enjoy an evening stroll along the perimeter.

The coquina used was also the material used at Wormsloe in Savannah. I don't know if you're familiar with it, since I don't believe it was technically a U.S. Fort at any time, or anything like that. But it was the private home of one of the first settlers in Georgia, and he built it with walls so that it would double as a fort. It was made of coquina.

The owner was in charge of a few marines (I believe they were "marines," but I'm not sure of the terminology employed at the time), who garrisoned the waterways right outside the home/fort. They used a swivel gun, if I remember correctly.

I might be confusing the technical details, since I only learned about everything on site when I visited last summer.

Anyway, the old fort residence was destroyed or fell into ruins, and the family still owns a house right next to it. The original Wormsloe itself is now part of a park, and the coquina ruins are still there.

It is a very interesting little piece of Georgia history.
 
I like the entrance too, but due to Covid the interior was closed to the public. I was able to enjoy an evening stroll along the perimeter.

The coquina used was also the material used at Wormsloe in Savannah. I don't know if you're familiar with it, since I don't believe it was technically a U.S. Fort at any time, or anything like that. But it was the private home of one of the first settlers in Georgia, and he built it with walls so that it would double as a fort. It was made of coquina.

The owner was in charge of a few marines (I believe they were "marines," but I'm not sure of the terminology employed at the time), who garrisoned the waterways right outside the home/fort. They used a swivel gun, if I remember correctly.

I might be confusing the technical details, since I only learned about everything on site when I visited last summer.

Anyway, the old fort residence was destroyed or fell into ruins, and the family still owns a house right next to it. The original Wormsloe itself is now part of a park, and the coquina ruins are still there.

It is a very interesting little piece of Georgia history.
I'm not familiar with Wormsloe, but it sounds like a place I should visit. I'll be in Savannah in October, so I'll make it a point to stop by. Thank you for the information - very interesting. BTW, the Coast Defense Study Group will be touring forts in Charleston and Savannah this October. It should be a great conference.
 
I'm not familiar with Wormsloe, but it sounds like a place I should visit. I'll be in Savannah in October, so I'll make it a point to stop by. Thank you for the information - very interesting. BTW, the Coast Defense Study Group will be touring forts in Charleston and Savannah this October. It should be a great conference.

Yes, it is right outside of Savannah, closer to it that Fort Pulaski, much closer.

And thank you for the info on the Coast Defense Study Group. I would love to join along, if possible, but I usually spend my travel money in the summer, when I'm off teaching, so making it down to Charleston and Savannah, from Philadelphia, and with all the days off from work it might entail, is farfetched for me.

I just purchased your book, so I hope to at least flip through it next week when it arrives. I can't promise when I'll begin it in earnest, as I'm currently rotating between Shelby Foote's trilogy, John W. Jackson's history of Valley Forge, and Keegan's history of WWII haha, a lot to read. But I perhaps will be able to add your book into the rotation.
 
Yes, it is right outside of Savannah, closer to it that Fort Pulaski, much closer.

And thank you for the info on the Coast Defense Study Group. I would love to join along, if possible, but I usually spend my travel money in the summer, when I'm off teaching, so making it down to Charleston and Savannah, from Philadelphia, and with all the days off from work it might entail, is farfetched for me.

I just purchased your book, so I hope to at least flip through it next week when it arrives. I can't promise when I'll begin it in earnest, as I'm currently rotating between Shelby Foote's trilogy, John W. Jackson's history of Valley Forge, and Keegan's history of WWII haha, a lot to read. But I perhaps will be able to add your book into the rotation.
One of the big bonuses for me being retired is that I don't have a fixed schedule, so I can build my travel schedule around events and around what part of the country I want to be in for a given time of year - north in the summer, south in the winter, etc. Even the eleven years I spent with Purdue University were very versatile, as I was staff rather than faculty so was not tied to the academic calendar. I traveled a fair amount for work, so I could tie my fort trips to my business trips - visiting UC Berkeley or Stanford I would add a couple of vacation days to see Fort Point and Fort Alcatraz; visiting MIT and Harvard I would add a couple of days for Fort Warren and Fort Independence; that kind of thing. It worked out very well. Carol is still working (Purdue) but has enough vacation time that she can travel with me on any of these trips.
I hope you enjoy the book. It's heavily illustrated, so you can at least simulate some fort visits and prioritize where you'd prefer to go during your travel season.
 
I was only 9, 10, or 11 (I'm 70 now) not sure when i visited Ft Pulaski and Ft Augustine. I was too young to really appreciate what I was seeing. I do remember being fascinated by the holes made by the Union bombardment on the walls of the fort.

ALERT.. TOTALLY OFF TOPIC.


In 1972 on my honeymoon we drove from Florence SC to New Orleans La. On the way driving south through Alabama when we hit the coastal interstate to turn west, shortly thereafter there was a sign advertising the USS Alabama. Before my brain knew what my hands were doing, they had made a deathdefying right hand turn to exit the interstate and pull into the parking lot to take the tour of the actual ship. Why my new bride of less than 36 hours did not immediately divorce is a mystery known only to God.
 
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