Fort Pulaski, named for General Casimir Pulaski, the Polish hero mortally wounded at the siege of Savannah in 1779, was built according to plans by General Simon Bernard, formerly chief engineer under Napoleon. Begun in 1829 and completed in 1847, it was constructed principally under Lt. J.F.K. Mansfield, and Lt. Robert E. Lee saw his first service there after graduation from West Point. The fort was never garrisoned until Georgia troops seized it in January 1861 to prevent occupation by Federal forces. On April 10, 1862, Federal batteries on Tybee Island began bombarding Fort Pulaski, and after 30 hours, with its walls breached and its guns disabled, Col. Charles H. Olmstead surrendered it. This bombardment marked the first effective use of rifled cannon against a masonry fortification and constituted an epoch in military history. Abandoned by 1885, Fort Pulaski became a National Monument in 1924 and was placed under the National Park Service in 1933.