NO Civil War History?? What Am I Doing Here???

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Well, the nerve of some places to have forts that have nothing to do with the Civil War!! That’s where I found myself today: at Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Believe it or not, this isn’t even a Revolutionary War fort! No, the only battle this place ever saw was the Battle of Bloody Marsh, on July 7, 1742! Back before we declared our independence, Georgia was one of the colonies under British rule. As such, Fort Frederica was a British military post. It was built in the 1730s to keep the southern part of the colony from being invaded by the Spanish, who at that time owned Florida. Apparently it worked quite well. The one attempt the Spanish made at attacking British soil failed miserably. Interestingly, by the time the U.S. was born in 1776, this fort didn’t exist any longer. The British had closed up shop there by 1755, and the few residents that were left also departed after a fire destroyed a good deal of the town that was enclosed within the fort’s walls. Neither Union nor Confederate forces made any attempt to re-establish a base of operations there during the Civil War. In fact, the place was in ruins until, in in the early 20th century, when the owner of the property decided it needed to be preserved. There are no intact buildings there; however, there are plenty of footprints of former houses, stores, and military barracks around the property that’s shaded by lovely trees thick with Spanish moss. Only a small part of the fort still stands (top photo). (In that photo, you can also see the footprint of a storage building.) The bottom photo is a close-up of the walls. The building material used was called tabby. That was a material made from burning oyster shells and blending the ashes with water, sand, and more shells. Apparently it was quite sturdy, as the remnants of the fort is still there after 270-plus years and who knows how many hurricanes. No, it wasn’t Civil War history, but it was no less enjoyable!! PHOTOS: (Top) Remnants of the fort from British use in the 1740s. (Bottom) Close-up of the wall, detailing the tabby material used to build the fort.