After Union forces retook Fort Pulaski in 1862, the fort became a gateway to freedom for enslaved people in the region. Families fled to this Union outpost in Confederate territory seeking liberty and protection. The military recruited African American men from the surrounding area to form one of the first African American regiments in the Union Army. Soon after the Battle of Fort Pulaski, General David Hunter, commander of the Department of the South, issued General Orders No. 7, freeing enslaved people at Fort Pulaski and on Cockspur Island, Georgia.