About Old Fort Jackson | OFJ History
Fort Jackson’s story actually begins more than three decades before the start of initial construction in 1808. During the Revolutionary War, American forces constructed an earthen battery to defend the Savannah River and the city of Savannah against British invasion. The Americans abandoned this early fortress in 1778 when British troops overran the defenses of Savannah on December 29th.
The next chapter in Fort Jackson’s story began in 1808, when President Thomas Jefferson authorized the purchase of a piece land known as Salter’s Island for $1,800. Captain William McRae, a recent West Point graduate, was assigned to oversee construction of a new fort on the site. This fort was later named in honor of James Jackson 
, a Colonel in the American Army, and later the Governor of Georgia. Jackson later became the first Georgian to serve as a United States representative, senator, and state governor. He helped write Georgia’s constitution, and played a role in creating the state seal. James Jackson is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.
In January 1861, as secession fever raged across the south, Georgia Governor Joseph Brown ordered Confederate troops to seize Fort Jackson from Federal authorities. From 1861-1864, Confederate soldiers garrisoned the fort. Local units like the Irish Jasper Greens, Republican Blues, and 22nd Georgia Heavy Artillery manned the fort throughout the Civil War.
On the evening of December 20, 1864, the Confederate garrison was forced to abandoned the fort to keep it from falling into Union hands. The fort’s defenders set the barracks ablaze, rigged the front gates to explode, and tossed all the ammunition and stores which they could not carry with them into the moat and the Savannah River. Nearby, the crew of the Confederate ironclad warship C.S.S. Georgia scuttled their vessel to keep it from being seized by the enemy. The following morning around 4:00am, Federal troops of the 29th Ohio and 28th Pennsylvania entered Fort Jackson and raised the Stars and Stripes over the parade ground. African-American troops from the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry were the last wartime occupants of the fort.
Changes in artillery technology caused Fort Jackson to diminish in military importance after the Civil War. In 1923, Congress voted to sell the fort as surplus property. In 1969, the Georgia Historical Commission opened Fort Jackson to the public, but budget problems forced the state to close the site in 1975. On Labor Day 1976, the non-profit Coastal Heritage Society reopened Old Fort Jackson. The Society continues to operate the fort under a lease agreement with the State of Georgia—receiving no federal or state funds to do so. The Society is dedicated to interpreting the history of Old Fort Jackson and all the people associated with it.