SH Archive Single Photo: Union troops remove ammunition in wheelbarrows in 1864

[KD Archive]

Union general William T. Sherman's troops remove ammunition in wheelbarrows from Fort McAllister (Bryan County) in 1864, following their successful March to the Sea.

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What do you think those things (I pointed out in red) were?

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[Archive]

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Username: Banta
Date: 2019-10-04 18:10:26
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The one on the furthest left does look like a Ferris Wheel, although some of the "spokes" look more bent than maybe I would expect and there's no apparent carriages.

Still, it's intriguing to consider that this was simply photo'd from a re-enactment during later Expositions.

This looks like it's leading into the hill, obviously. Storage cache? Plumbing? Hard to tell how big it is.

Couple more weird things. I think this is just a defect in the photo, but... I dunno.

This guy has a strange effect going on his face. Maybe it's just motion blur, but it doesn't really look like it (compare to others in the picture). Looks like a smudge tool.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-04 18:22:22
Reaction Score: 1

That square thing reminded me of this.

Ancient Cannons aka Ball Mills aka Cement Kilns?

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-10-04 18:22:38
Reaction Score: 1

The red arrowed oblong thing looks to me like a vent, a big one, given its position right over the entrance to the ammunition store in which you can see a chap stood quite clearly in the photo, I cannot fathom why its there
The bunker we see above ground looks like its there to absorb artillery shots and the ammunition store is actually underground so an air vent or possibly a vent to keep the ammunition dry.
Ehe word source is missing its link.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-04 18:24:50
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The red arrowed oblong thing looks to me like a vent, a big one, given its position right over the entrance to the ammunition store in which you can see a chap stood quite clearly in the photo, I cannot fathom why its there
The bunker we see above ground looks like its there to absorb artillery shots and the ammunition store is actually underground so an air vent or possibly a vent to keep the ammunition dry.
Ehe word source is missing its link.

Fixed

 

[Archive]

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Username: Banta
Date: 2019-10-04 18:33:03
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That square thing reminded me of this.

View attachment 30604
Ancient Cannons aka Ball Mills aka Cement Kilns?

There is a resemblance, but whatever that is, it appears to be being held up by the hill behind it. Maybe it's just sitting in front, but then, on what?

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-04 18:37:00
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Well, this is Fort McAllister during the Civil War. May be some other related photographs have something similar.

@jd755 could be right about the vent thing, but that would be the kind I have never seen.

The wheel looking thing on the left had to be pretty big. At least it appears that way. I can't find anything of a kind in any of the Fort McAllister 1861-1865 photographs.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-10-04 20:17:09
Reaction Score: 5

Well, this is Fort McAllister during the Civil War. May be some other related photographs have something similar.

@jd755 could be right about the vent thing, but that would be the kind I have never seen.

The wheel looking thing on the left had to be pretty big. At least it appears that way. I can't find anything of a kind in any of the Fort McAllister 1861-1865 photographs.

I found and checked the three copies of this image the LOC has [Savannah, Ga., vicinity. Sherman's troops removing ammunition from Fort McAllister in wheelbarrows]
and they all have the round thing in them.
I downloaded a tiff of the clearest image and cropped the following all enhanced one step with gimps unsharp mask. Those two hats don't look 'of their time' to me but not up on civil war headgear.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Banta
Date: 2019-10-04 20:21:17
Reaction Score: 1

Fantastic grab of the wheel. I really feel like this is a reenactment from a fair, but I don't have anything solid yet.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-10-04 20:58:33
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Went back to the LOC site and followed the thread of the photographer. Turns out they have 11 photographs attributed to him. This one I feel shows the same wheel and it is much smaller than it appears to in the other image but still it's as big or bigger than the bloke stood in the background. Still not a clue what on earth it is. Must be made of metal, surely. Unless there were two mysterious wheels there.
From here; A general view of Ft. McAllister, Ga.
Cropped and filtered one step gimp's unsharp filter.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-04 22:16:32
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I am not sure this is the same wheel.

 

[Dielectric]

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Username: Dielectric
Date: 2019-10-04 23:26:06
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That square thing reminded me of this.

View attachment 30604
Ancient Cannons aka Ball Mills aka Cement Kilns?

Well of course it's not a cannon. It's a pile driver. Shows how our technology is blinding us to logical thinking. That Square Shape rode on planks that acted as guides for it, while the trunnion's held ropes that pulled the driver up on it's sled to the top, whereupon it was released and falls down striking a piling.

That cannot be a wooden spoked wheel. It is clearly a wire spoked wheel, but not a bicycle tire, more like some small wheel from a kids trike or stroller. Something of that nature. The whole image has an unreal feeling. It looks like the line of men closest are super-imposed against a back
image, but with two or three actors replacing images, so it's like a montage with the additions of spurious inking that really isn't what I would expect to see with age. I've restored and re-created some images from heavily damaged and edited photo's and there's no inking like seen here. That and the wire spoked wheel appears to me to be a sort of joke like aspect; it's like see how gullible they are? That's the sense I have of this. I feel this is a heavily modified image constructed form several images along with the insertion of the individuals whom may have been involved.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-10-08 20:26:29
Reaction Score: 1

Been looking for an image of the wheel(s) or an article suggesting what it might be for. Zilch in a word.
However a couple of interesting things did turn up.
From here; Savannah in the Civil War: 1861-1862

June 7, 1861

Company A of the 1st Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, the DeKalb Riflemen, arrive at Genesis Point on the Ogeechee River, to initiate construction of a defense fort. The land is owned by Joseph L. McAllister, who also owns a large nearby plantation, Strathy Hall. The Ogeechee River is 12 miles south of Savannah and opens to the Atlantic Ocean, making it a potential route for Union forces to invade Savannah. The troops begin to construct an earthen-walled fort. (It is named the Genesis Point Battery until sometime in late December 1861 or early January 1862, when it is officially named Fort McAllister.)


Wonder who changed the name and why?
I also find it odd that prior to the civil war it was the United States Army and the it devolved, apparently, into the Union Army and the Confederate Army. Was it because there was in reality a Disunited States?

And this drawing of the fort and specifically the 'ammo dumps' I am struggling to correlate it with the op image and the other pictures taken of this fort during the civil war. Not only that according to that site it was smashed a few times by the Union ships and according to the text 'it was easily repaired because it was made of earth.
Well if that is the case where in any of the photographs is any damage or any repaired ramparts?
I just cannot see any.

Early drawing of Ft. McAllister on the Ogeechee River.

Also not one of the guns in the photographs look like they have ever been fired.