'I had a life. I lived. I loved': Photo of Fort Pulaski bricks made by enslaved persons brings to life those long forgotten

(Fort Pulaski National Monument)

Fort Pulaski National Monument’s Facebook post this week showing fingerprints embedded on bricks is a poignant reminder of the anonymity of enslaved persons who literally built much of the country.

Some 25 million bricks were shipped to Cockspur Island east of Savannah, Ga., during construction from 1829-1847. Most were made by enslaved people, officials said. A close-up photo shows two bricks – one gray and one red – located in the embrasure of Casemate 16.

“Men, women, and children spent each day laboring to make bricks for a fort built to protect the port made rich from their labor," reads the post, which has been shared more than 460 times. "Though it took eighteen years for Fort Pulaski to be completed, the names and stories of the enslaved people who made the bricks for the fort have been hidden and, in many cases, lost.”

Park guide Elizabeth 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."

Fort Pulaski was a US Army coastal defense fort when it began operations; it was considered invincible because of its design and construction.

Rifled shot pulverized Fort Pulaski (Picket photo)

When the Civil War broke out, local militias and Rebel troops took control. A year later, rifled Union cannons penetrated the bricks and brought about the surrender of the masonry fort on April 11, 1862. It was the end of an era for that type of construction.

According to the park’s post, the work behind making all those bricks was laborious.

“Often times while making the bricks, fingerprints and even handprints would be left behind and hardened into the brick. These fingerprints 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.”

A commenter on the Facebook post left this eloquent message: “These fingerprints say to us, ‘I had a life. I lived. I loved. I had human hands, and these hands touched and loved and labored, though they were enslaved. My hands were no different from your hands. I lived. I was worthy of freedom, dignity and love. Remember me.”

Smith told the Picket that the red bricks were made in Baltimore and Alexandria, Va. 

“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.”

Newspaper advertisements are often the best source for finding information for the fort's construction era, Smith says. Joseph Mansfield (right) -- the Army officer in charge of the construction of the fort for 14 of the 18 years -- regularly posted in local newspapers seeking additional workers, she says. The wages, of course, were paid to owners of the enslaved.

-- “Notice: Persons having demands for the wages of Negroes employed in the service of the U.S. at Cockspur Island, are requested to call at the city hotel this day at 9 o’clock, when they will be paid.” (From The Savannah Daily Georgian, June 8 and July 7, 1830)

Fort Pulaski, 2d. August, 1836
“The wages to be paid for prime slaves on the Fortifications at Cockspur Island from the 14th Inst. will be fixed at 14 dollars per mouth and found -- the owner to lose runaway time only, and the Government to furnish physician and medicine. Any be withdrawn from the works in one day’s notice. -- Jos. K. F. Mansfield Lt. Corps. Engs.” (From the Daily Georgian)

Smith said hardly any names of the enslaved associated with the fort's operation are known.

"Research into the story of the enslaved is ongoing … and hopefully one day we’ll be able to share a lot more of these stories …  in order to present a better rounded and full history of all the people who made Fort Pulaski. But while we don’t have names or stories themselves, we have many fingerprints throughout the fort to remind us that there is a deeper story, one that we still have to rediscover and tell."

The Casemate 16 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 said in an email.

Embrasure where the fingerprints are located (NPS)

After it fell during the Civil War, Fort Pulaski became a place of hope for freed slaves rather than a symbol of their suppression.

Orders issued by a Union general a few days after the Confederate garrison surrendered declared slaves held in Southern states forever free. Hundreds of former slaves gained their freedom at Fort Pulaski and Cockspur Island, which became a final destination, one of the most southern points, on the vast Underground Railroad network.

Many of the men who arrived at Fort Pulaski became members of the 1st and 3rd South Carolina Volunteers in the Federal army, seeing action late in the war.

March Haynes, a man who was born into slavery and, upon gaining his freedom after the surrender of Fort Pulaski, remained in the area in order to spy for the Union army and assist other enslaved individuals in their own quests for freedom. "Many of these men, women, and children remained on Cockspur Island throughout the war and took up residency in the old construction village," says Smith.

CSS Georgia recovery: Crews back on river will try to lift 2 casemate sections intact

(All photos USACE)

Julie Morgan

Two years after the recovery of much of the jumbled remains of the CSS Georgia in Savannah, Ga., divers and crews will be back on the Savannah River starting next week (June 19) to go after two prize casemate sections and more artifacts. The ironclad, which served as a floating battery, was scuttled in December 1864 before Federal forces took the city. Julie Morgan, an archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the removal of the CSS Georgia as part of a harbor deepening project, spoke this week about what’s new this time around. Update! Casemate section lifted

Will this be as interesting as the 2015 effort?

“It is another chapter. The possibility of seeing these large sections of casemate is pretty exciting. It is the casemate that makes the Georgia pretty unique,” said Morgan. “To bring up something this size intact is an amazing engineering feat.” She cautions officials may have to go to a Plan B of separating sections if the casemate doesn’t have the integrity to be brought up in a single lift. Much of the wood backing has deteriorated. Officials said their hope is to bring up a “corner” of the casemate to demonstrate how the sloped pieces of wood-backed armor were designed and fastened.

What’s the importance of the casemate?

It was the protective armor that covered both sides of the Confederate vessel and housed the artillery pieces. What’s unusual about the Georgia was instead of rolled plate, the casemate was composed of railroad iron (above) attached to multiple layers of supporting wood. The recovery will be no easy task, and crews did not have the proper equipment (and big enough cranes) to lift the two sections in 2015, Morgan said. The west section, about 68 feet by 24 feet, weighs about 120 tons. The largest piece of the east casemate, at 40 tons, is about 27 feet by 24 feet. 

Frame that will be used on east casemate (USACE photo)

What’s the approach this summer?

“We are approaching this as an intact recovery,” said Morgan. The team will go first after the east casemate and will strap a prefabricated frame beneath to serve as support. For the much larger and heavier west casemate, beams will be used and two cranes will make the lift to a barge.

A 5,000-pound casemate after recovery in 2013.

What else may be recovered?

The project will be done in two phases, with the casemates first. In 2015, the east section was moved and many artifacts beneath were scooped or brought up. But crews couldn’t get to the other section, lending a bit of mystery as to what may still be there. “There is no telling. What is under that west casemate won’t be discovered until we get it up,” said Morgan. The mechanized phase follows. Crews will use a large clamshell device to bring up items from the river floor. All manner of artifacts were brought up that way in 2015.

What has been learned about the gunboat in the past couple years?

“Even from the artifacts we recovered in 2015 it really did verify a lot of the archival accounts of the inadequacies of power and components,” said the archaeologist. Conservators have found maker’s marks on cannon and gun sights. “She was built underpowered and the rationale for why is an interesting question.”

Artist's rendering of the CSS Georgia

What’s going to happen to the casemate?

They’ll be placed back into the river by the end of this summer’s work, in a “secure location” away from the shipping lane. As Morgan explains, there needs to be a spot and plan for conservation before they are taken from the water and exposed to the air, which would hasten corrosion. The CSS Georgia conservation has been going on at Texas A&M University, but it still has many items from 2015.

What is the long-term prospects for displaying CSS Georgia items?

As the Picket has previously reported, the U.S. Navy, which owns the vessel, wants to see artifacts on display somewhere rather than in a conservation lab or warehouse. It is in touch with museums and other venues on the prospects. “A larger collection gives a better story, but I think there’s also the possibility of some traveling exhibits to get more exposure, especially throughout the state of Georgia,” said Morgan. She understands why it may be difficult to show an entire section of the west casemate. “We are talking about something so large you would almost have to design a building around it.”

CSS Georgia update: Divers, crews this summer will lift large casemate sections

Sections of CSS Georgia casemate (USACE, Savannah)

Divers this summer will be back on the wreckage of the CSS Georgia, working to remove 160 tons of the ironclad’s protective casemate from the Savannah River.

Julie Morgan, an archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Savannah office, said she expects this second recovery operation to begin in mid- to late June. It will last about 45 days.

“There will a smaller crew this time because the work site is smaller,” she told the Picket. In summer 2015, U.S. Navy divers spent weeks on the site near downtown Savannah, bringing up heavy pieces of the vessel, including several pieces of artillery.

They won’t be on site this year. Commercial divers, working with the Corps and Panamerican Consultants, will attempt to lift the remainder of the east and west casemates – with an eye on keeping the large pieces as intact as possible.

It will be no easy task. The west section, about 60 feet by 24 feet, weighs about 120 tons. The east casemate, at 40 tons, is about 20 feet by 24 feet. Divers will again work in near-zero visibility and swift currents on a vessel that’s in many pieces.

Crews in 2015 wash off railroad iron used as armor (USACE)

Nearly 30,000 artifacts – including portions of the casemate -- already been recovered from the Confederate ironclad, with thousands undergoing conservation in Texas.

The vessel, which served as a floating battery to defend entrance to the city, was set afire and scuttled in December 1864 to keep it out of the hands of Union troops closing in on Savannah.

The CSS Georgia must be moved as part of a project benefiting the Port of Savannah. With the expansion of the Panama Canal, even larger ships are traveling to and from U.S. cities. That requires deeper channels.

While the CSS Georgia is not directly in the shipping lane, it must be raised so that vessels will have more room to maneuver as they make their way to and from the Atlantic Ocean.

Divers and archaeologists had hoped to remove all of the casemate in 2015, but the weight and size of the still-intact sections provided challenges that need to be addressed with tweaked rigging and lifting techniques.

A sliced section of casemate shows railroad iron, USACE)

Officials said their hope is to bring up a “corner” of the casemate to demonstrate how the sloped pieces of wood-backed armor (in the Georgia’s case, railroad iron) were designed and fastened.

“The west casemate has a lot of potential,” said Morgan.

Following the casemate work, a clamshell device will bring up remaining smaller pieces of the CSS Georgia and artifacts. With that, you never know what you might find. So far, the river has yielded prehistoric Native American pottery and post-Civil War debris.

Officials said inner-harbor dredging is at least a year away.

Coming soon: Update on artifacts conservation