Georgia's Fort McAllister next month may formally dedicate wall panels about USS Montauk and other Union monitors

Interpretive panels explaining the role of the USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean are expected to formally debut next month at a Georgia park.

Fort McAllister State Historic Park manager Jason Carter in May said the site near Savannah might reopen an exhibit detailing the vessels and the Rebel raider CSS Nashville (Rattlesnake) on July 4. The CSS Nashville was destroyed by USS Montauk near the fort in February 1863. Park officials on July 2 said the panels were not yet up, and a date would be announced.

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) produced the panels and a 3D model of the USS Montauk. The model is expected to be put on display later this year. There’s also hope for an accompanying film, though that would be down the road.

The five new wall panels in the museum will cover these topics: Civil War monitors, the Passaic class of monitors, armament, ironclads versus an earthen fort, and what happened to the USS Montauk and the others at Fort McAllister after the fighting. The panels will feature photographs, drawings and illustrations.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and fellow monitors Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863. It was considered a trial run of sorts for the armored vessels, which effectively brought to an end the day of the wooden fighting ship. (Fort McAllister thwarted the attacks and held on until December 1864.)

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden, the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the USS Montauk 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1 found the ironclad, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells.

USS Montauk receives fire from Fort McAllister as it pounds CSS Nashville, upper right.

Its big day came on February 28, 1863. The sidewheeler CSS Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River

The 215-foot ship commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck after it ran aground near the fort.

“During the February 28, 1863 attack, Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider CSS Nashville. Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog post. “However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad and he, the hero of USS Monitor, received even greater laurels for his newest decisive actions.”

CSS Nashville artifacts in the museum (Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources)

While the Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s, Fort McAllister’s grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts and facsimiles.

A pavilion houses several pieces of the engine and the interior collection includes part of a cannon, ship fixtures, fittings, cargo tag, personal items and much more, including a model of the CSS Nashville.

Carter said the current exhibit on the CSS Nashville will remain the same. “We are going to create a ‘loading dock’ scene in the corner once we have the panels up. There will be boxes of rifles, munitions, etc, stacked up.”