taken by his state. A steamship carrying 110 men from Savannah traveled downriver, and the fort was seized by the state. After the secession of Georgia in February 1861, the state joined the Confederate States of America, and Confederate troops moved into the fort. By December 1861, Tybee Island was thought to be too isolated and unprepared for conflict and so was abandoned by Confederate forces. This allowed Union troops to gain a foothold across the Savannah River from Fort Pulaski. Union forces, under Quincy A. Gillmore, began constructing batteries along the beaches of Tybee Island. Confederate fort Siege and reduction of Fort Pulaski On the morning of April 10, 1862, Union forces asked for the surrender of the Fort to prevent needless loss of life. Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, commander of the Confederate garrison, rejected the offer. Fort Pulaski was prepared for a possible infantry attack, but it never endured a direct land assault. Using 36 guns, including the new James Rifled Cannon and Parrott rifles, Union troops began the long bombardment of Fort Pulaski. The rifled projectiles could be accurately fired farther (4–5 miles) than the larger and heavier smoothbore cannonballs. Within 30 hours, the new rifled cannon had breached one of the fort's corner walls. Shells now passed through the fort dangerously close to the main powder magazine. Reluctantly, Colonel Olmstead surrendered the fort. Only two soldiers (one Confederate and one Union) were killed in the attack. Olmstead's decision to surrender haunted him for decades: We were absolutely isolated beyond any possibility of help from the Confederate authorities, and I did not feel warranted in exposing the garrison to the hazard of the blowing up of our main magazine -- a danger which had just been proved well within the limits of probability.... There are times when a soldier must hold his position to the last extremity, which means extermination, but this was not one of them.... That the fort could and would be absolutely destroyed by the force of the enemy was a demonstrated fact,... while our own power to harm them had been reduced to a minimum,... I am still convinced that there was nothing else that could be done. Gillmore succeeded almost entirely because of his rifled cannon, which caused massive damage in the walls of the fort. Gillmore's triumph won him promotion from engineer captain to brigadier general. Union control Within six weeks