Dr. Nancy Hooten and a very big gun….
This week we are in Savannah Georgia, on our way to Charleston and The Citadel Tomorrow.
But today we spent the day touring Savannah with Dr. Nancy Hooten – local artist and Civil War historian (or as they call it down here, ‘The Recent Unpleasantness’)
The morning was spent at Ft. Pulaski, on Cockspur Island.
Cockspur Island lies at the mouth of the Savannah River, the entrance to Savannah Harbor and Fort Pulaski sits on the tip of Cockspur Island.
In 1861, it was state-of-the-art defensive technology for The South – solid brick walls and bristling with canon (like the one above).
Any Union ship foolish enough to approach the Island and the river would have been blown out of the water,
Savannah was a lifeline for The South.
The north was an industrial powerhouse, producing steel, iron and weaponry. The south was agrarian and for its machined tools and guns it depended upon trade with England. England, on the other hand, depended upon trade with The South for the cotton that was the lifeblood of The Industrial Revolution. 80% of the cotton that was milled and machined in Manchester, England came from the South.
When the Civil War started in 1861, President Lincoln initiated a blockade of all Southern ports to cut off the South’s supply of weapons. Savannah was a natural target. He who controlled Fort Pulaski controlled Savannah. But a frontal assault on Fort Pulaski seemed impossible. The brick walls were impregnable – it had taken 18 years of solid construction to build them. Canon balls bounced off the brickwork.
But General David Hunter, the Union General had a different idea – a new technology – the James Rifled Canon. Instead of just projecting the canonball outward, this newfangled technology spun a pointed shell as it left the barrel of the canon. No one had tried this new technology, but Hunter placed 14 new rifled canon on Tybee Island, and on April 9, 1862 began firing.
30 hours later, it was all over.
The new shells punctured the brickworks.
Colonel Charles H Olmstead surrendered the fort to the Yankees.
In 30 hours nearly 300 years of defensive technology and military thinking was made utterly worthless.
That might have been a bit hard for many engineers and generals to accept, but it was a fact.
A formerly guarantee of invulnerability had been smashed by a new technology.
This happens all the time.
Ironically, on the same day that we visited Fort Pulaski, I read in The Wall Street Journal that Fox signed a deal with Amazon Prime Streaming for its movie library.
Soon you will be able to see Fox Movies on Amazon.
No need for TV.
That’s technology for you.
One minute impregnable.
The next, a pile of worthless bricks.
