Fort Pulaski ensured a battle during the Civil War, and men died here both during the war and in peacetime. It should be no surprise to discover that it is haunted by the spirits of soldiers.

A truly strange experience deeply affected a man intent on looting artifacts from the grounds surrounding Fort Pulaski, according to Margaret DeBolt in Savannah Spectres and other Strange Tales. He and a friend rowed from Tybee Island to Cockspur Island on a quiet, bright still night with a metal detector. They were walking through tall marsh grass toward the fort when “all at once it sounded like someone else was there, on the other side of a clump of bushes,” he said. “This surprised me, as I had thought we were the only ones there.”

The startled men stopped, and a moment later so did the shadow walker. The pair started forward again and so did their unseen companion, the stride long and heavy and traveling in the same direction. When the bushes ended they expected to encounter the other intruder, “only we couldn’t see anything! As we stood there, we could watch the tall grass mash down, as though someone were walking right in front of us, then past us, and on out into the marsh.”

Without a word the men simultaneously turned and sprinted for the boat, rowing across the water in record time.

It seems that the Confederate garrison at Fort Pulaski is determined to solider on. In Battlefield Ghosts B. Keith Toney tells the story of a mother and her boy who were intrigued by a Confederate sentry at the moat gate one day. They asked him about his uniform and sword, then the mother requested the location of the restrooms. The sentry replied that he would show them but could not leave his post. The mother thanked him and entered the fort.

Inside she encountered a ranger and asked him about the facilities. When he replied that they were near the entrance she was irritated and described her encounter with the sentry. "There’s no one on duty over there,” the park employee replied. "We don't have soldiers dressed in Confederate uniforms at the fort.”

Hundreds of reenactors participated in filming “Glory,” the movie about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was shot around Savannah. During a break nine men dressed in Confederate uniforms decided to visit Fort Pulaski. Outside the wall they came upon a well dressed Confederate lieutenant. They nodded at their presumed follow reenactor and continued.

“Halt!” the lieutenant shouted, according to Toney. “Don’t you men salute a superior officer when you see one?”

A few of the mock Confederates returned a half-hearted salute, several just shrugged, and one was in no mood to play along, growling, “We ain’t on the set yet!”

The officer stalked forward and said, “Sir, I don’t know to what you are referring, and frankly don’t care! Your insolence, however, will be noted and not tolerated. Now, fall in! Colonel Olmstead has recalled all work parties. The Yankee attack is imminent.”

The men looked at each other and decided that this might be a show for the tourists. They formed a line and when the young officer barked, “Attention! About face!” they complied smartly. The next instruction should have been “Forward! March!” but it never came. When the reenactors looked back, the lieutenant had vanished.

“We searched all around the place,” one said. “Never found any trace of him...Hard as it is to believe, we’ve all pretty much accepted he was a ghost.”
In October 1864 550 Confederate officers were imprisoned in Fort Pulaski in a barred section of casemates. Poorly fed and sheltered, many developed scurvy and dysentery. Thirteen died and were buried outside the fort.

A group of Confederate reenactors placed a laurel wreath at the graves on March 18, 1994, then settled down inside the fort for the night. Later a twelve-year old boy named Nicholas snuck out and walked around the perimeter of the fort, a quiet area cooled by ocean breezes. Nearing the graves he spotted a figure in Confederate uniform on his knees beside the graves, his hat respectfully removed and held in hand. Nicholas did not recognize the man, who stood, started walking away and faded to nothing.

The frenzied lad raced into the fort and reported the incident. All the reenactors were present-none had ventured outside the walls. The group decided that a Confederate had returned to pay homage to his comrades.

In January 2001, on a cold, rainy night, Fox Family filmed a segment of The Scariest Places on Earth within Fort Pulaski with the assistance of Bobbie Weyl, who is a local psychic, and history students from Armstrong-Atlantic State University. The camera team was spooked by unexplainable sounds within the casemates, and camera batteries quickly lost their charge.

During the assignment Weyl felt great despair on a parapet and on stairs leading to where a Confederate soldier was mortally wounded. She also sensed the presence of soldiers and supply wagons on the parade grounds. The college students were to spend the night within the fort, but the sight of a spectral sentry pacing the parade ground and the sounds of shutting doors and phantom footfalls led to their hasty departure at three in the morning.

Foundation for Paranormal Research members John and Julie Williams became interested in the paranormal when they were Civil War reenactors some years ago. While in a room at Fort Pulaski they both witnessed two doors open and close by themselves. “The doors opened in different directions so I could not explain it away,” Julie explained. On another occasion, a cold night when Julie was sleeping in a room filled with other women, she wished to herself that it was warmer. Immediately a dying fire roared to life. “I was immediately scared,” Julie admitted. “I didn’t know they could read your mind.”

From my Georgia Civil War Ghosts, awaiting publication.

Read my Civil War in Georgia blog Pulaski: Star of the Conspirator.

Jim Miles is the author of nine books about the Civil War and two weird Georgia books. See Jim’s books.
 

Tagged with: Weirdness in Georgia