Moat around Fort Pulaski, Fort Pulaski National Monument

Length: .5 mile loop
Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

There is no set trail around Fort Pulaski for what is called the Moat Walk—you just walk around it by following the moat. You can walk in the grass, or better yet, on the stone blocks that line the moat. Just be careful not to fall in because alligators have been spotted in the water.

A hike around the moat, which is seven feet deep and up to forty-eight feet wide, is the best way to see the damage sustained by the fort during the April 1862 artillery bombardment by the Union Army positioned on Tybee Island. Over 5,000 artillery shells fell on the fort in a thirty hour period. You’ll know when you are on the side facing Tybee because you’ll see the craters in the wall—other sides are nearly as good as new. While a hole was blown in the wall during the bombardment, it was repaired within six weeks after Union soldiers occupied the fort.

Damaged walls of Fort Pulaski, Fort Pulaski National Monument

Photo of hole blown in the wall of Fort Pulaski

As you walk around the fort you will come to the canal that supplies water to the moat. This connects to the South Channel of the Savannah River, and if you hike the Historic Dike Trail, you can see the gates that let water in and out. The canal is still used today to fill the moat.

Water flows into the Fort Pulaski moat under this culvert, Fort Pulaski National Monument

A canal links Fort Pulaski to the South Channel of the Savannah River, Fort Pulaski National Monument

Another feature that you will see on your walk around Fort Pulaski is a triangular island surrounded on all sides by the moat. This is called the demilune, and it is located on what is the backside of the fort. Up until the end of the Civil War, the demilune was a flat piece of land with a waist-high wall around it that held storage buildings, kitchens, the enlisted men’s mess hall, a guard house, and a few guns. Its purpose was to protect the entrance to the fort from a land invasion. After the war, three powder magazines and a command center to control mines placed in the Savannah River were built into the ground of the demilune and covered by the large, earthen mounds that you see today. A series of tunnels connects everything together, and you are welcome to walk around inside.

Fort Pulaski’s demilune, Fort Pulaski National Monument

You will also pass a cemetery used for all people who lived on Cockspur Island, not just soldiers killed during the war. Union soldiers were once buried here, but they have since been moved to Beaufort National Cemetery. There are only a few tombstones remaining, so I am assuming that the rest of those buried here are still below ground in now unmarked plots. There is also a memorial for the Confederate troops who served at Fort Pulaski and thirteen Confederate officers who died while being held prisoner at the fort. Towards the end of the war, the Union converted some of the fort’s casemates into prison cells for Confederate POWs.

Cemetery at Fort Pulaski National Monument

Confederate memorial in the Fort Pulaski Cemetery, Fort Pulaski National Monument

The Moat Walk is a must for anyone who took the time to come to Fort Pulaski National Monument. I suggest doing this before exploring the inside of the fort. The best route is to hike in a clockwise manner, taking the sidewalk from the Visitor Center towards the cemetery and then heading around the left side of the fort. When you get to the other side you can enter the fort via the bridge to the demilune, which is about three-quarters of the way around. For information on touring the inside of the fort, see the Fort Tour web page.

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