January 11, 1861, The New York Herald
Savannah is the seat of justice and the largest city in the State of Georgia, and contains 20,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the southeast bank of the Savannah river, on a high bluff, forty feet above low water mark. It is twelve miles distant, in a direct or air line, from the ocean, and eighteen miles, following the course of the river. The city is regularly laid out in the form of a parallelogram, with streets (many of them wide) crossing each other at right angles. There are ten public squares in the city, containing two acres each, at equal distances from each other. These squares and many of the streets are bordered with trees, and particularly of the genus know as the ‘Pride of India,’ which give them a beautiful appearance. The monument erected to General Greene, and especially the one to count General Pulaski, who fell in the attack against the British at Savannah, are beautiful and tasteful structures. Many of the houses are of brick, and a considerable number of them, including the principal public buildings are elegant. The city is lighted with gas, and well supplied with water from the river, raised by two powerful steam engines into a reservoir one hundred and twenty feet above the surface of the river, and distributed through the city in iron pipes. On the east and west of the city are marshes, and a pine barren extends two miles to the south. The city affords good facilities for vessels in distress, having a dry dock capable for taking vessels 235 feet in length by sixty feet over all, and everything necessary for repairing vessels. There are also ways for drawing up vessels of three hundred tons. There are twenty feet of water on Tybee bar at high water, with a fall of six feet.
The city was founded in 1733, by General James Oglethorpe and others. It was taken by the British in 1778, but they abandoned it in 1782. On the 10th of January, 1820, four hundred and sixty three buildings were destroyed by fire – four millions worth of property destroyed; but it has been rebuilt with additional beauty.
THE DEFENCES OF THE CITY.
FORT PULASKI.
The city is guarded on its sea approaches by Fort Pulaski, built on Cockspur Island, fourteen miles from Savannah, at the mouth of the Savannah river. The site of the fortification was selected by major Babcock of the United States Engineer corps, about twenty six years ago, but it was not till 1831 that the work of erecting the present massive masonry fortification was commenced in earnest. In that year Captain Mansfield now Colonel Mansfield, of the Inspector General Department, took charge of its construction. The fort was finished a few years ago, at a cost of $963,000. The fort is of a pentagonal form, covering several acres; its walls are forty feet high, and present two faces on the sea approach, with ranges of fire radiating at opposite angles. The fort is embrasured on the front and channel side for one row of guns under bomb proof casemates, with an additional tier of guns open or en barbette. The salient points and flanking approaches in the rear of the work have no embrasures for heavy cannon, but are thoroughly covered by enfilading musket loopholes, which renders a land or escalating attack extra hazardous to an enemy. The full armament of the fort, when it shall have been brought within its walls, will consist on the lower tier of sixty five thirty two pounder iron pieces, and the upper tier with fifty three twenty four pounders, four eighteen pounder flanking howitzers, one thirteen inch mortar, twelve eight inch Columbiads, and seven ten inch mortars – in all, one hundred and fifty guns. We understand, however, that not more than one half the number of guns required for its full armament are in the fort, and these are dismantled. The Columbiads, to which reference has been made, are very destructive weapons, of long range, and adapted to use spherical shot or shells. Many of those now in Fort Pulaski can be mounted to have a horizontal fire of one hundred and eighty degrees, and a vertical fire of five degrees depression to thirty six degrees elevation. The interior of the fort is well supplied with massive furnaces for heating shot, officers’ quarters, soliders’ barracks, magazines, and a tolerable supply of shot and powder. In the cut above the small black figure on Cockspur Island is For Pulaski, somewhat diminutively displayed, but sufficient for our purpose; the exterior line represents the ditch which surrounds the work, and which, when dry, can be used by sharp shooters, or should it be necessary at the approach of an enemy, easily flooded. Beyond this ditch is a glacis or inclined bank, which is enfiladed by the guns from the lower or casemate row of the fortification. The fort at present is not on a full war footing; to complete it, twenty six new barbette gun platforms are required to suit the prescribed armament; and the ditches should be cleared of the mud accumulated throughout their whole extent, the bottoms of the ditches repaired, and the banks of the feeding canal revetted. The full war garrison of the work is eight hundred men, but one half that number could hold it successfully against any armada the federal government can bring against it. Vessels of any considerable size in beating up the channel to Savannah, are obliged to approach within seventy yards of the fort, and at this point many guns of large calibre can be made to concentrate their fire. The fortification is pronounced by expert army engineers one of the strongest and most perfect of its kind on this continent. It covers more area than Fort Sumter, but has one tier of guns less than that work.
Fort Pulaski is now garrisoned by upwards of two hundred Georgia troops, who are working like beavers to put the place in a complete state of defence. The garrison is now under the command of colonel Alexander R. Lawton, a graduate of West Point, and subsequently an officer of the First regiment of United States artillery. He afterward resigned and we understand he is the president of the Savannah and Augusta Railroad.
FORT JACKSON.
This is small work, built on a low marsh, four miles from Savannah, on a site near the bend of the river, and commanding important points in the channel. It is built of heavy brick masonry. Its armament consists of ten twenty four pounder iron guns, three field pieces, five eight inch howitzers, one then inch mortar and one eight inch mortar. Its war garrison consists of seventy men. It cost the government $80,000.