Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey and Management Plan of Fort McAllister State Historic Park, Bryan County, Georgia

Near the mouth of the Great Ogeechee lie the remnants of what was once a modest Confederate Army earthworks, a place dubbed by some historians as Georgia's "Thermopylae" or its "Alamo" (Colquitt 1930). The site earned its own rightful place in history, however, and should be remembered simply as Georgia's "Fort McAllister". With the fall of Fort McAllister the surrender of Savannah and all of coastal Georgia soon followed. At McAllister plantation General William Tecumseh Sherman faced his final obstacle in his March to the Sea. After three years of periodic pounding by naval bombardment from the U.S. Navy's ironclad fleet, the battle tested sand battery at McAllister finally succumbed to a four minute inland attack by 2,300 Yanks in the late afternoon on December 13, 1864. The siege of Fort McAllister was the final event of an exhausting day in which the Union soldiers marched more than 15 miles to reach the fort. Meanwhile, the entrenched Confederates spent the day feverishly reinforcing their position against the oncoming onslaught knowing all the while that defeat was certain. The battle ended with a fierce saber duel between a severely wounded Captain Bayard Clinch, commander of the Clinch's Light Battery, the Yankee Captain Stephen F. Grimes, and two other unnamed Yankees. As exhausted soldiers from both sides stood on the ramparts and watched, Captain Clinch finally was subdued, but only after receiving two gunshot wounds, multiple bayonet wounds, and various saber cuts. At last the Confederates were vanquished and Fort McAllister's demise foretold of the South's imminent defeat. Less than four months later, peace would return to Georgia and Fort McAllister entered the realm of history. Today, more than 135 years later, McAllister's earthen ruins stand as mute testimony amid the whispering drapery of Spanish moss in the pines and oaks, and barnacle encrusted iron shrapnel that dot the Spartina-fringed shoreline. The stifled hum of Winnebagos and other recreational vehicles occasionally break the silence at one of Georgia's most scenic state parks. This is the story of the archaeology of Fort McAllister and the tiny marsh islands that surround it. But, as this report demonstrates, Fort McAllister State Historic Park is more than a Civil War site; it has a grand story that extends back more than 3,000 years.