For nearly a century. Fort benning was established on macon road in columbus, georgia, on approximately 85 acres of land in october of 19 18th 1918. On that day the war came to a close and there was talk of closing fort denning. Many officers who had served in the American Expeditionary forces to france went before congress to testify that had our soldiers had better training they would not have suffer the casualties that they did in just 210 days of actual combat, so it was determined by congress that we would keep fort benning on a smaller scale and luckily for us, it survived. But first, go on board the css jackson, one of only four surviving ironclads dating back to the civil war. We are in the National Civil war naval museum on the banks of the chattahoochee river. The purpose of the naval museum is to tell the stories of the navys during the civil war. We are the only facility that focuses entirely on that particular story. We are in a unique place, right here inside the museum a