The first shell was fired from Tybee about 8:15 a.m., and by 9:30 all of the Union batteries were in full operation, each mortar firing at 15-minute intervals and the guns much more rapidly. Soon after the shelling from Tybee began, Pulaski’s guns opened up, first four casemate guns and then those on the barbette.

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The first shots from both sides went wide of their targets but, as firing continued, both sides became more accurate. Most of the Federal mortar shells exploded in the air or fell into the mud outside the fort, but when a solid shot from a columbiad landed directly on the wall, the entire fort shook. A little after 10 o’clock, just such a solid shot entered an embrasure, dismantling the casemate gun and wounding several of the gun crew.

The firing from Tybee did more damage as the day progressed. Gillmore recalled later: “By 1 o’clock in the afternoon it became evident that, unless our guns should suffer seriously from the enemy’s fire, a breach would be effected: with a glass it could be seen that the rifled projectiles were surely eating their way into the scarp of the pan-coupe and adjacent southeast face.

“When the constant firing ceased for the night, after nine and a half hours’ duration, the commencement of a breach was plainly visible. It was equally manifest, to the surprise and disappointment of all experienced officers present, that the 13-inch mortars …were inefficient …. It was clear that for the reduction of Fort Pulaski we should have to depend on breaching alone.” Gillmore was proving that rifled guns could destroy masonry fortifications designed to withstand artillery–for which he won extensive recognition.

From sunset until daylight, seven or eight shells an hour were thrown from Tybee onto Fort Pulaski to prevent repairs during the night, but the Confederates did succeed in repairing some of their guns. “That, however, did short good,” wrote one of them. “Our fort was in shambles.” Both sides resumed firing at daylight. Fort Pulaski’s fire was far less damaging than the Federals’–most of the guns on Tybee were masked behind sand ridges or otherwise hidden from sight.

About mid-morning, the Federals suffered their only casualty when a solid shot from Pulaski entered a gun embrasure and fatally wounded a soldier. By noon; at Fort Pulaski, there were over 20 casualties, including some men who were mortally wounded. Projectiles from the Federal rifle batteries were sweeping completely through the breach and striking the walls of the north magazine, in which was stored 40,000 pounds of black powder.

Twenty-five-year old Colonel Olmstead sadly faced the fact that the time had come for him to decide whether to fight on against overwhelming odds, endangering the lives of the entire garrison, or else admit defeat. He gave the order to surrender. The Confederate flag was lowered halfway and one final gun was fired from a casemate; then the flag was hauled on down and replaced by a white sheet. It was later determined that during the two-day battle, 5,275 shot and shell were fired against Fort Pulaski, but the walls were breached almost entirely by three guns–two 84-pounder and one 64-pounder rifles. That, said Northern military men, would “revolutionize such warfare.”

Olmstead met Gillmore and a party representing General Hunter at Cockspur Landing and led them to his quarters. The fort’s officers laid their weapons on a table, while the men of the garrison stacked their arms outside. After signing the articles of unconditional surrender, Olmstead said, “I yield my sword, but I trust I have not disgraced it.” The United States flag was then raised on the ramparts.

All the Confederate troops at Fort Pulaski were sent as prisoners to forts in New York Harbor, and Pulaski was garrisoned by Union soldiers. The Savannah River was now entirely closed to blockade-runners, and the large Federal naval force employed in the vicinity was freed for service elsewhere. Gillmore was appointed brigadier general 17 days after Fort Pulaski’s surrender.

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