Richmond Hill in Bryan County, Georgia — The American South (South Atlantic)
Capt. John McCrady
Designer of Fort McAllister
Photographed By Mike Stroud, October 5, 2008
1. Capt. John McCrady Marker
Inscription.
Capt. John McCrady. Designer of Fort McAllister. Charlestonian, a student of Agassiz at Harvard, then professor of mathematics at the College of Charleston, he resigned his position at the outbreak of the war and became an officer in the Confederate engineers. Transferred to Savannah he spent his efforts surrounding that city with an extensive ring of defenses. The rest of his life was academic. He returned to his old professorship in Charleston, later became assistant to Agassiz, then professor of biology at the University of the South, Sewannee, Tennessee.
Charlestonian, a student of Agassiz at Harvard, then professor of mathematics at the College of Charleston, he resigned his position at the outbreak of the war and became an officer in the Confederate engineers. Transferred to Savannah he spent his efforts surrounding that city with an extensive ring of defenses.
The rest of his life was academic. He returned to his old professorship in Charleston, later became assistant to Agassiz, then professor of biology at the University of the South, Sewannee, Tennessee.
Location. 31° 53.395′ N, 81° 11.905′ W. Marker is in Richmond Hill, Georgia, in Bryan County. Marker can be reached from Fort McAllister Road, on the right when traveling east. Behind the visitor center at Fort McAllister. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 3894 Fort McAllister Road, Richmond Hill GA 31324, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regarding Capt. John McCrady. In February 1862, Gnl. Robert E. Lee, then commander of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, authorized improvements of Ft. McAllister just before leaving to accept command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Fort McAllister was attacked 6 times by Union ironclads, gunboats and mortars, each time repelling the enemy. Damage to the fort was minimal, with repairs done usually over night. Injuries were few and mortality much less.
The seventh Yankee attack on Ft. McAllister on December 13, 1864 was land based, and was the only successful one.
Also see . . . 1. Fort McAllister. Along with the soldiers, 30 leased slaves provided
Photographed By Mike Stroud, 2008
2. Capt. John McCrady Marker
the labor to construct this earthen fortification. The work on the battery was under the direction of Capt. John McCrady, Engineer. (Submitted on October 20, 2008, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.)
2. SherpaGuides, Fort McAllister State Historic Park. Fort McAllister, a Civil War fort that guarded the back entrance to Savannah (Submitted on October 20, 2008, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.)
Photographed By Mike Stroud, 2008
3. Fort McAllister
Photographed By Mike Stroud, 2008
4. Fort McAllister, south side
Photographed By Mike Stroud, 2008
5. Fort McAllister, one of several Powder Magazines
Photographed By Mike Stroud, 2008
6. Fort McAllister, moat area, north side
Photographed By Mike Stroud, May 30, 2008
7. Fort McAllister
Photographed By Mike Stroud, October 5, 2008
8. Fort McAllister : A Proving Ground
Although it was a small fort with comparatively
few men and guns, Fort McAllister played a key
role in both Confederate and Union strategies for
naval warfare.
Knowing that block-running ships carrying
Confederate goods hid in the Ogeechee River,
the Union Navy first sent the Potomsak, a
3 masted wooden gunboat, to cruise upriver.
Arriving at Fort McAllister on July 1, 1862 the
Potomsak fired twice and retreated. It was
the first of many Union ships to test the earthen fort.
On July 29, the Union ships, Paul Jones, Unadilla,
Huron, and Madgie shelled Fort McAllister with their
11- inch smoothbore, Parrott rifles, and smaller-caliber
guns. The shells sank into the fort's dirt walls, while
the Confederates fired back relentlessly until the
gunboats retreated.
But the Union Navy had other opponents for Fort
McAllister: ironclads. A few months earlier, a legendary
battle between theC.S.S. Virginia( formerly the
Merrimack ) and the U.S.S. Monitor -
gunboats covered by iron plates - had changed naval
warfare forever. Against iron-hulled ships,
conventional weapons no longer worked.
However, ironclads were hard to maneuver, and
handling weaponry was difficult inside their tight
spaces. Union officers wanted to test the vessels
again before attacking the Confederate stronghold
at Charleston.
Fort McAllister, an isolated outpost on deep water,
was the ideal proving ground. In two separate battles
in early 1863, the Union attacked with the ironclad
Montauk and then with a combined force of the
Montauk plus three additional ironclads - the
Passaic, the Patapsco, and the Nahunt.
After nearly seven hours of fighting, both sides sustained
heavy damages, but neither was defeated. In the battle
of competing technologies, both sides won.
Credits. This page was last revised on January 25, 2021. It was originally submitted on October 20, 2008, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 1,725 times since then and 11 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. submitted on October 20, 2008, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. • Craig Swain was the editor who published this page.