Fort Pulaski [key], brick fortification on Cockspur Island, SE Ga., at the mouth of the Savannah River; built 1829–47 by the U.S. government and named for Casimir Pulaski. The fort was seized by Georgia troops during the Civil War in Jan., 1861, but fell to a Union force under Q. A. Gillmore on Apr. 11, 1862, after a two-day bombardment in which the Federals used rifled cannon for the first time in the war; the battle proved the superiority of rifled cannon over masonry forts. Fort Pulaski National Monument was established in 1924 (see National Parks and Monuments, tablenational parks and monuments, table).
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