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Fort McAllister State Park

Photo: Bubba73 (Jud McCranie) / CC BY-SA 3.0

🌊 Lakes & rivers

Fort McAllister State Park

Richmond Hill, GA · Savannah

About

The best-preserved earthwork fort the Confederacy left behind sits on a bluff where the Ogeechee River widens toward the sea, its grassy ramparts and Columbiad cannons shaded by live oaks dripping Spanish moss. Union ironclads shelled it seven times without breaking through; it finally fell in December 1864 when Sherman's infantry stormed the works in fifteen minutes and ended the March to the Sea. Today you walk the mounds and bombproofs, cast for redfish off the fishing pier, and camp among the marsh and oaks ten miles south of Savannah.

Highlights

Best-preserved Confederate earthwork fort in the U.S.Restored Columbiad and rifled cannons on the rampartsFell to Sherman's March to the Sea in December 1864Campsites, cottages, and a fishing pier on the Ogeechee River

Getting there

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Georgia State Parks18 places

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Georgia's state parks pack a remarkable range into one state. Up north there are deep gorges and the tallest cascading waterfall in the Southeast; in the southwest, a pink-and-orange canyon erosion carved out of old farmland; through the middle, mineral springs and CCC-built lodges; and down south, the wild blackwater edge of the Okefenokee. These are the ones worth building a weekend around, from the Blue Ridge to the coast.