In January 1861, shortly after Georgia voted to secede from the
Union, the state took possession of Fort James Jackson, an 1808
fortification built just a few miles from the city at one of the
deepest points along the Savannah River. The fort was in
desperate need of repair when some of the first troops to be
stationed there, the Irish Volunteers, moved in. A lot of what
the Irish Volunteers did leading up to July and August of 1861
was to get the fort ready “to train troops and prepare for an
invasion,” according to John Caramia, director of Interpretive
Programming at the Coastal Heritage Society. In November 1861,
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was assigned command of South
Carolina, Georgia and East Florida, and at first made his
headquarters at Coossawhatchie, S.C. He later moved to Savannah,
where he had been stationed years earlier after graduating from
West Point, to oversee improvements to forts Pulaski and
Jackson. Lee ordered the building of a series of batteries to
help protect and support Fort Ja