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WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Tag & Assess 2008

Article reassessed and graded as start class. -- dashiellx ( talk) 13:52, 1 May 2008 (UTC) reply

Pulaski fort 'signed over' -- citation needed

The narrative as it now reads, reports a force of 110 confronted two caretakers (here, enlisted, janitors or slaves who shall remain unnamed? -- And these, on the spot under duress, or perhaps collaborating with secessionists, the fort is "signed over" according to the article as it is now written. On the other hand, the U.S. Constitution says, [ I. Sec. 8] the U.S. Congress is "to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over … all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings … "

One would expect a reference to an Act of the Georgia state legislature declaring repatriation of the grounds before the action if it were to be according to states rights doctrine. More properly, an Act of the U.S. Congress following a state statute authorizing to cede the fort from the U.S. to Georgia. That is how the reversion of a portion of the District of Columbia was made to the Commonwealth of Virginia to make Arlington, Virginia (notice on a map, Arlington's boundary makes the south west corner of the 10 miles by 10 miles Federal District as called for in the Constitution.

Or at least there should be the courtesy of naming a US officer lending his signature in what would be, in the eyes of that Government, "treason". Was there a subsequent Congressional hearing? In any case, WP editors must provide a reference for this undocumented assertion. TheVirginiaHistorian ( talk) 00:50, 3 June 2011 (UTC) reply

Two caretakers?

What is the intent of mentioning "two caretakers" in the sentence "Though completed in 1847, Fort Pulaski was under the control of only two caretakers until 1860 when South Carolina seceded from the United States and set in motion the Civil War"? Is this to emphasize that 1847 to 1860 was a short period of time? Does "two caretakers" refer to two human beings? Was the human being who commanded the fort called a "caretaker"? - or is "commmander" or "superintendant" a better term?


Tashiro ( talk) 15:51, 10 September 2011 (UTC) reply