Leslie and David's Wanderings: 20 March 2020 Touring Savannah

They announced their first local case of COVID-19 today. The order to close all the bars, sit down restaurants, non-essential stores and public venues kicks in tomorrow morning, so we decided to see what we could of Savannah today. We drove out to Fort Pulaski NM so we could at least say we tried to see it. The fort was visible on the island across from the closed entrance. The fort was built between 1808 and 1826 as part of the first tier of defenses. It did not see action during the war of 1812. Modifications of the Fort continued through 1846. It was never manned. In January 1861, Confederate forces occupied the fort. Later that spring Union forces set up cannon on Tybee Island and began bombarding the fort. Some of the canons were of a new type with rifled barrels. The new rifled canon tore through the masonry walls of the fort forcing the Confederates inside to surrender. The Union occupied the fort and held it through the war using it to prevent the Confederate forces from using the port of Savannah. For a time, it held the infamous 500 Confederate officer prisoners of war used to prevent the confederates from attacking. The Confederates were doing the same thing with Union officer prisoners of war at other forts. It was later used to house Indian prisoners before being abandoned by the military in 1908. It was made a National Monument in 1924.

On the way out, we noticed a sign for Old Fort Jackson. So on the way back into town, we stopped at Old Fort Jackson and found that it was open. The Old Fort Jackson is run by a non-profit organization. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. After paying the $20 entrance fee, we did a self tour of the fort. Fort Jackson was built between 1820 and 1848. It became the primary fortification to prevent Union Forces from attacking Savannah from the river. Between the Fort, multiple gun batteries, river barriers and the Iron Clad CSS Georgia, the Union forces never made a serious attempt to sail up the river. Savannah fell from the land during General Sherman’s March to the Sea campaign and Confederate forces abandoned the fort and retreated to South Carolina. We watched a movie on the history of the fort and inspected the rooms and armament. We made it a point not to touch anything.

Returning to Savannah, we drove through the old historic section of Savannah and down to the riverfront. There’s a beautiful statue commemorating the Legend of the Waving Girl at a water front park. She stood stoically greeting the passing ships and river tugs. It is said that as a very young girl, the love of her life, a young sailor, went off to sea. Young Florence promised to be faithful and patient awaiting his return. With a white apron she waived at passing ships by day and a lantern at night. After 50 years, in 1931, her faithful watch ended. She passed away 12 years later. This statue was erected in 1971.

A few of the stores, bars and restaurants were still open, particularly along the river, but we decided that discretion and social distancing was better than any chance of COVID-19. It a beautiful town with the old houses, Spanish moss covered massive oaks and quaint streets.

We called the RV Park in Charleston and they allowed us to extend our stay until 3 April.