Civil War graffiti at Fort Pulaski: Yankee and Rebel soldiers and a POW left their mark near Savannah through paint and carvings

(National Park Service illustration, modifications by Andrew Gast)

Among the 25 million bricks brought in to construct Fort Pulaski are some used for graffiti by Union soldiers and a Confederate who was held prisoner at the sentinel in the marshes near Savannah, Ga. They silently speak of homesickness, patriotism and defiance.

Reminders of those who spent time there include paintings in two casemates and carved names on various walls. Fort Pulaski was a U.S. military fort before the state of Georgia seized it after secession. It fell to Union forces in April 1862 and was occupied for the rest of the Civil War, serving as a garrison and prison.

The Civil War Picket last month visited Fort Pulaski National Monument. Park guide Elizabeth Smith showed us the graffiti and a few marks left by people who did not consciously decide to do so. They are fingerprints and a hand print of enslaved persons who shaped these bricks.

There’s no place like home, but this place will do

"The Union Now and Forever" painted above gold emblem (Picket photo)

The 48^th New York Volunteer Infantry is perhaps the best known of Federal regiments that had garrison and other duty at Pulaski after it fell to a furious bombardment from batteries built on nearby Tybee Island. These boys from Brooklyn kept boredom at bay through a band, baseball games and a drama club, among other activities.

Two casemates still have messages painted into whitewash over the red bricks. Over one embrasure (window) is “HQ Drum Corps.” In the next casemate, on the ceiling are the remnants of the message “The Union Now and Forever.”

"HQ Drum Corps/" "This Way Out" created by 48th NY troops (Picket photos)

On the walls nearby are “This Way Out” and “A Soldier’s Home.” An interpretive sign nearby tells visitors the regiment was trying to find humor during its time at Pulaski while they were cut off from civilization.

“They were literally making this space feel more like theirs in a time when they were often very homesick for their real homes.”

The 48th was stationed at Fort Pulaski for about a year in 1862-63. The unit remained vigilant, always prepared for a Confederate counterattack, but that never materialized.

After it departed, the 48^th saw extensive combat for the remainder of the war, taking part in battles in South Carolina (Fort Wagner), Virginia (Cold Harbor and Petersburg) and North Carolina (Fort Fisher), among others.

This 48th soldier was a carpenter by trade

John Charters was stationed at Pulaski for about a year (Picket photo)

A wall near the northwest staircase and powder magazine at Pulaski contains many carved names, some dating to the Civil War, some more recent. Among the best-preserved is that of Pvt. John Charters, a soldier with the 48th. Below his name he wrote Brooklyn, NY.

Smith provided this synopsis:

The Brooklyn-born soldier was a teen when he enlisted in 1861. His occupation was listed as carpenter. On the muster roll, John Charters was noted as being 5 feet 8 inches tall with brown hair, blue eyes and a “florid” complexion. 

When the regiment was sent south in late 1861, Charters and his comrades built and manned gun emplacements on islands near Hilton Head, S.C. “The islands were barely more than piles of mud, giving the 48th and other units a very difficult job of maneuvering heavy cannons into position to blockade the river and prevent ships from getting past to resupply Fort Pulaski,” Smith wrote on a park Facebook page.

Members of the 48th NY band in NW corner (Library of Congress)

During their garrison time at Pulaski, the unit helped repair the fort’s walls and made a few military incursions into South Carolina, though it’s not known whether Charters took part in those raids.

The 48^th was officially mustered out of service on September 1, 1865, with Charters having achieved the rank of sergeant.

Park Guide Elizabeth Smith points out some of the names (Picket photo)

He returned to Brooklyn and resumed his carpentry trade. He was married and had two children. Newspaper articles show he was involved with the Grand Army of the Republic.

He died on May 10, 1909, at age 65. The park has been unable to local a photograph of him.

Near Charter’s name is an engraving for the 157^th New York Infantry, which also saw duty at Fort Pulaski.

Confederate left his name, but you can't make it out

Fort Pulaski was built in the 1830s and 1840s to protect Savannah from a naval attack. Of course, at this time, it was a U.S. fortification.

In January 1861, shortly before Georgia seceded from the Union, state troops occupied the deteriorated outpost. The moat was filled with mud and no cannons were in proper place when they swept in, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. Companies from Macon and Savannah formed the garrison.

Slaves impressed from rice plantations aided in the cleanup and preparations for possible contact with U.S. forces, and by the time Col. Charles H. Olmstead took command in December 1861, the fort's defenses had improved dramatically.

The mostly illegible carving above was made by an unknown Confederate on Oct. 30, 1861, Smith said.

Experience at Pulaski left Capt. Lemon bitter

Capt. James Lile Lemon served with Company A, 18^th Georgia Infantry, part of John Bell Hood’s Texas Brigade. He enlisted as a second lieutenant in 1861 for a three-year term. Lemon was described as having a “light complexion, dark hair, blue eyes, [and] 6 feet” in height, according to Smith, whose research included Ancestry, Fold3 and the officer's diary.

The regiment fought in numerous eastern battles – including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Second Manassas and Chancellorsville. The farmer and merchant from Acworth had a close call at Gettysburg, when a Yankee bullet struck his canteen, causing it to strike his head. His combat days came to a close in November 1863, when Lemon was severely wounded by a Minie ball in the pharynx and taken prison after an assault on Fort Sanders in Knoxville, Tenn. 

Lemon recalled his wounding in his journal, saying: “I had left my sword in the mud & had drawn my pistol & moved up firing as fast as I could when I suddenly felt a tremendous blow to my head & lost consciousness & next regained my faculties later that day & it was then I knew we were repulsed & I a prisoner. A Yankee doctor told me of my wound which was very painful & which prevented me from swallowing. He told me I had nearly died from blood & fluid in my lungs but that my wound had been cleaned & drained & I should recover soon.”

By the time he arrived at Fort Pulaski in October 1864, Lemon had already been in at three Federal prisons: One in Louisville, Ky; Camp Chase in Ohio and Fort Delaware, Delaware. 

The captain’s brief time at Pulaski is part of the story of the “Immortal 600,” a fascinating footnote to the conflict. The story is involved, but here’s a summary:

In summer 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones essentially used 600 captured Union officers as human shields, in a section of Charleston, S.C., in the line of fire. The North retaliated by transporting 600 POWs from Fort Delaware to Morris Island, S.C., in direct line of Rebel guns.

“For nearly three months, the stalemate continued. It wasn’t until yellow fever broke out in the city of Charleston that the Confederacy removed the Union prisoners to newly erected prison camps further inland,” the National Park Service says. “With the Union prisoners removed from Charleston and no longer under fire from Union artillery, there was no need to keep the Confederate prisoners on Morris Island. With this realization, the next phase of their journey began and the Immortal 600 began the journey south, to Cockspur Island and Fort Pulaski.”

Capt. James L. Lemon's  name etched in 1864 (Picket photo, click to enlarge)

The officers arrived on Oct. 23, 1864. “They presented a forlorn picture. Uniforms in tatters, barefooted, suffering from diarrhea and hacking coughs, their ranks had already been reduced to 520," according to an old park brochure.

"He was one of the approximately 300 prisoners who remained at the fort -- about 200 had been removed after only a few weeks to be held at Hilton Head due to a lack of space at the fort -- and at some point in the five months he remained, it appears he carved his name into the whitewash," said Smith. "The name can be found above the embrasure in Casemate 18, though it is not often pointed out to people as the nature of the whitewash makes the carving very fragile."

The Rebel officers were guarded by the 157^th New York Infantry and for a time their lot improved. The regiment’s commander apparently resisted efforts to put the prisoners on a starvation diet – as retaliation for the treatment of Union soldiers at Confederate prisons -- but he eventually relented and they were placed on the harsh diet for more than a month.

A Virginia cavalry officer wrote that corn meal was rotten and contained bugs and worms.

“About December 10th scurvy made its appearance in our prison amongst the weakest of the prisoners. Most every man in the prison was suffering more or less with dysentery and a large majority were from the starvation diet, unable to leave their bunks."

Marker just outside walls describing POW deaths (Picket photo, click to enlarge)

By January 1865, when a Union surgeon ordered the POWs be given full rations and medicine, 13 had died, mostly of dehydration due to dysentery. They are buried outside the fort, where a sign tells the story and a stone monument bears their names. Lemon apparently did not write a journal during his few months at Fort Pulaski.

In March, the Rebel officers, including Lemon, were returned to Fort Delaware, where they were held until the end of the war. Shortly after their return to Delaware, the captain’s diary describes harsh conditions at Fort Pulaski and alleged mistreatment by his captors. 

 “We have recently returned to this place after a most brutal & cowardly outrage against humanity. I cannot now speak of the sufferings & deprivations & humiliations we were subjected to. Many among us are now dead from starvation, disease, shot or beaten to death and the rest of us are about used up from the shameful journey forced upon us by the Yanks. I know not of the reason for this but we are told it is for some reported offense against a few of their prisoners in Charleston.”

At war's end a few months later, Lemon refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States, citing his treatment, but he eventually did take it in June 1865, according to Smith.

A descendant lives in captain's home (Acworth Tourism Bureau Authority)

In his journal, which the park has in its collections, Lemon wrote: “I have done the unspeakable but I am now paroled & to day set out for home. My duty to my country is done, mine to my family remains.”

Lemon returned to Acworth and had 11 children with his wife Eliza. He was a retail merchant and then a bank executive. He was serving as president of the bank when he died on June 12, 1907, at age 72.

A descendant lives in the home today and has written extensively about the captain. The residence is shown on the city’s tourism website and is on a walking tour.

Enslaved persons left reminders of a harsh life

Smith in the southeast corner of the fort (Picket photo)

Millions of bricks were shipped to Cockspur Island during the fort’s construction from 1829-1847. Most were made by enslaved people. In Casemate 16, near where Lemon and others were held, are two bricks – one gray and one red -- in the embrasure. They contain fingerprints left by their makers. On one side is a small handprint.

Smith said enslaved people played a large role in the construction and maintenance of Fort Pulaski, "though sadly very little information is known about any individuals or even what it was like."

The red bricks were made in Baltimore and Alexandria, Va., and transported to the site. 

Smith's hand is next to handprint left in brick (Picket photo)

“The grey bricks, however, were made right here in Savannah on the Hermitage Plantation, hence the nickname Savannah Greys. The Hermitage relied on the enslaved men, women and children to make the bricks, which is most likely when the fingerprints were left in the bricks.”

The embrasure is in Pulaski’s southeast corner, which took the most damage during the Union bombardment in April 1862. “You can still see that damage in this embrasure in the width of the window and the lack of bricks. The fingerprints and handprint in this embrasure used to be hidden beneath a layer of bricks, but the battle damage removed those bricks and exposed the fingerprints and handprint," Smith told the Picket.

In February, the park wrote about the fingerprints in a Facebook post, saying “they serve as a tangible reminder that while the architecture and the military history of the fort may be impressive, there is another vitally important story that sits right in front of our eyes if we only just look for it.”

Fingerprints left by enslaved person (Picket photo)