Imagine yourself walking the ramparts of an earthen fort along the Georgia Coast in the waning days of winter in early 1864. The wind whips off of the ocean and even with your over coat, scarf, or blanket wrapped around you the chilly wind bites right through your layers and you feel it. Even the coast of the south east can get cold. Down river towards the mouth of the Great Ogeechee River lie the menacing ironclads and tall masted war sloops of Able Lincoln’s Union blockade. No ships can enter or leave, but the Federals have not taken Ft McAllister at Genesis Point, Fort Thunderbolt, Old Ft. Jackson, or Savannah itself. Perhaps the ironclad warships will try again to pummel McAllister’s walls. There are rumors of a sharp fight in between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, Florida at the Ocean Pond. There are new commanders in north Georgia on both sides, and other rumors fly that the Savannah defenses will be stripped of men to augment the army under Joe Johnston. Garrison Duty on the Great Ogeechee River is not as mundane as one may think.

“Guarding Savannah” is a semi immersion event that the Armory Guards is hosting at Ft. McAllister State Park near Richmond Hill, Georgia March 2-6, 2011. The event is a blend of a the “Christmas at the Fort McAllister,” a weekend of recreating the garrison life of the fort as well as highly successful “garrison” events of the recent past such as the highly lauded “Winter of ’64” and the Fort Granger events.

The event hosts feel that Ft. McAllister is a historical gem that will facilitate a program that is enjoyable, educational, challenging, and above all else historically accurate as the modern day will allow. This is a unique opportunity for living historians to recreate a Civil War era garrison at the original site on historical ground.

Contacts
Jordan Roberts, Event Planning Staff (email)
Herb Coats, Event Planning Staff (email)