The assault on and capture of Fort Pulaski is the story of the elimination of Savannah, Georgia as a Confederate seaport. Of equal importance was the North's successful use of rifled artillery against that masonry, fort, a technological turning point equal in significance to the much better known development of ironclad ships. The rifled cannon were developed in the mid-1800s and were first used in siege warfare during the attack against Fort Pulaski.