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Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s swearing in as the nation’s sixteenth president, seven southern states announced their intention to secede from the United States. Florida, which had been admitted to the Union only fifteen years earlier, was the third state to declare its independence and among the first to join the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, tensions between the North and South reached their breaking point when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The American Civil War had begun.
Despite its meager population of 140,000 residents and general lack of industrial resources, Florida’s importance to the Confederate war effort was incalculable. Possessing over 1,300 miles of coastline, a multitude of shallow inlets, numerous inland waterways, and a largely uninhabited interior, Florida soon proved itself a vital contributor to the Southern cause.
Confederate leaders realized early in the Civil War that the agrarian South was ill-equipped to meet the long-term demands of their armed forces. Lacking the natural resources and industries needed to produce essential war materials like guns and ammunition, the Confederates turned to Europe for additional supplies. Using fast, shallow vessels called blockade runners to procure these essential goods, the Confederacy hoped to keep up with the growing needs of their men in the field. To achieve this, southern leaders hastily erected fortifications along their most important waterways in an effort to protect them from Union attack.
Aware of the Confederacy’s dependence on imported materials to fuel their war effort, President Lincoln authorized the establishment of a Federal blockade on April 19, 1862. Based largely on the Anaconda Plan by General Winfield Scott, the United States Navy created three squadrons to secure all ports, inlets, and harbors along the Confederate coast. The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron was established to patrol the coastline from the Potomac to Cape Fear. Further down the coast, the South Atlantic Blockade Squadron was assigned a territory ranging from Cape Henry to Key West. The Gulf Blockade Squadron was assigned the entire Gulf of Mexico with orders to prevent all Confederate smuggling from Key West to the Mexican border.
Civil War era illustration of General Winfield Scott’s plan for blockading the Confederacy’s ports and waterways.
On April 19th, 1861, Commodore Samuel F. Dupont was given command of 27 warships belonging to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron with orders to secure the Atlantic coastline from Cape Hatteras to Cape Canaveral. Known as the "The Great Naval Expedition", this mighty fleet consisted of Dupont’s flagship the USS Wabash, 18 gunboats, a cutter, a transport fitted out as a man of war, and six troop transports. During the first year alone, Commodore Dupont succeeded in securing most of the Confederate coastline from Cape Hatteras to St. Simon’s Island. By March 2, 1862, the fleet had worked its way south to St. Andrew’s Bay on the Georgia coast with plans to attack the Confederate stronghold of Fort Clinch on the northern tip of Amelia Island, twenty miles to south.
Captain Samuel F. Dupont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Captain Samuel F. Dupont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Facing the combined might of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron without hope of support, the Confederate troops stationed at Fort Clinch quickly withdrew. Taking the island with little or no resistance, the Federals secured the fort and took possession of any materials left behind. These events were repeated on several more occasions as the Squadron made its way down the Florida coast. On March 11, 1862, Federal forces sailed up the St. John’s River and captured Jacksonville with very little bloodshed. St. Augustine fell the following day in much the same manner. Confederate leaders quickly realized that they had little hope of combating the growing might of the Federal Blockade Fleet and began shifting their focus to smaller, more isolated inlets for importing their much needed supplies.
Illustration of Fort Clinch on Amelia Island shortly after its capture by Union forces.
Situated 50 miles south of St. Augustine, Mosquito Inlet was renowned for its treacherous sandbars and swift currents. Sparsely populated except for the small community of New Smyrna, the shallow bay quickly became the destination of choice for some of the South's most renowned blockade runners. From New Smyrna where the cargo was unloaded, the critical supplies were transported by wagon to the St. John's River where they were loaded aboard river boats and shipped north to Fort Brooks via the Ocklawaha River. From Fort Brooks, the cargo was taken by wagon to Waldo and then north into Georgia and beyond. The inlet had become so important to the war effort General Robert E. Lee himself issued a dispatch to Brigadier General James H. Trapier informing him that Arrangements must be made for running into Mosquito Inlet, on the east coast of Florida, arms and ammunition, by means of small fast steamers.”Sent in January 1862, these orders clearly illustrate just how vital Mosquito Inlet had become to the Confederate cause.
Confederate blockade runners such as the Ella and Anna pictured above were essential to the Confederate war effort.
Around March 20, 1862, the Federal gunboat USS Henry Andrew entered Mosquito Inlet with orders from Commodore Dupont to safeguard a large quantity of timber that had been left to season on the banks of the Halifax River. Under the command of Acting Master T.A. Harris, a shore party from the Henry Andrew made its way up the river where over 40,000 feet of seasoned oak and cedar was located only to discover that the Confederates had set it ablaze to prevent it from falling into Union hands. Shortly after this disappointing discovery, the USS Henry Andrew was joined by the USS Penguin which had recently arrived at Mosquito Inlet. With the remainder of Commodore Dupont’s fleet stationed off-shore, the two gunboats traveled a short distance up the Hillsborough (now Indian) River where they anchored for the night.
That evening, the crew of the USS Penguin was met by an escaped slave who swam across the river to join them. The slave informed Lieutenant Budd, commanding officer of the Penguin, about a Confederate salt works some 18 miles to the south. Upon further conversation, the officers discovered that a blockade runner named the Katie was anchored not far away and that its precious cargo of arms and ammunition was hidden in a palmetto thatched shed near the old Turnbull stone wharf in New Smyrna.
Armed with this information Lieutenant Budd and Acting Master S.W. Mather of the USS Henry Andrew set out on the morning of March 22, 1862, to seize the Katie, capture her cargo, and destroy the salt works. Departing in six whale boats with a force of approximately fifty men (including the escaped slave), the raiding party quickly made its way south up the Hillsborough River, a steady southerly breeze aiding their progress.
Confederate salt works under attack by Union forces on Florida coast
So successful had the Federals been to date that little consideration was given to the possibility of enemy resistance. In the words of the USS Penguin's Paymaster, A.W. Kelsey, "The entire expedition took on the air of a picnic" as the men raced each other up the river with complete disregard for their own safety. Passing the old stone wharf, the Federals took note of "certain excavations made upon the river's banks, evidently intended by the Confederates as the beginning of earthworks that they had never completed". Believing the area to be abandoned, the small group continued south to destroy the salt works they had learned about the previous day.
From positions behind the embankment, over 100 Confederate soldiers watched as the Federals made their way up the Hillsborough River. Having arrived in the area just ahead of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the soldiers were operating under orders to protect a large supply of munitions (including 10,000 Enfield rifles) that had recently been smuggled in through Mosquito Inlet. Deciding to hold their fire, the Confederates soldiers remained in their concealed positions and waited for the Federals return.
Having successfully destroyed the salt works located on the bank of Mosquito Lagoon near present-day Oak Hill, the Federal force worked their way north back to New Smyrna against a contrary wind. Scattered across the breadth of the river, the six boats arrived at the old stone wharf with intentions to seize the Katie and confiscate the weapons stored nearby. As the first boat, containing Lieutenant Budd, Acting Master S.W. Mather, the escaped slave, and four others reached the bank, Captain D.B. Bird, commanding officer of E Company of the Third Florida Infantry Regiment, revealed himself and ordered the Federals to surrender.
Surprised by the Confederate Captain’s sudden appearance and the sight of over a hundred rifles pointed in his direction, Lieutenant Budd responded to Captain Bird’s ultimatum with an impassioned “Go to Hell!” before rushing back to his boat. The Confederates opened fire and instantly killed the Lieutenant, Acting Master Mather, and three others. The survivors (including the runaway slave who was later hanged) were taken prisoner. Stunned by the sudden carnage, the remaining Federals reacted by turning their boats and rowing frantically away. Fully exposed to the repeated Confederate volleys in their thin hulled whale boats, four more fell dead and several others were wounded. A howitzer mounted in one of the boats was discharged only once before breaking loose from its lashings and being thrown overboard to prevent it from falling into enemy hands
Paymaster A.W. Kelsey wrote in later years that many of the Federals, including himself, dove overboard in an attempt to escape the “Confederate rifle balls whizzing about us” and swam frantically to a small island a short distance away. Struggling through “very deep and sticky mud”, Kelsey and the others were “forced to drop down repeatedly until the rifle balls directed towards them found some other more promising mark”. Maintaining a constant vigil for Confederate pursuers, the haggard crew worked their way north along the banks of the river towards the Henry Andrew and safety.
The engagement at Mosquito Inlet proved decisively one-sided. Of the fifty men that left the USS Penguin and Henry Andrew that fateful morning, nine were killed and seven wounded. The bodies of Lieutenant Budd and Acting Master Mather were delivered to Commodore Dupont the following morning by Captain Bird. It is presumed that the remaining dead were buried somewhere nearby. Although the Confederates won the day on March 21, 1862, their mastery of Mosquito Inlet would prove short-lived.
On July 26, 1863, The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron returned to Mosquito Inlet to enact what many considered to be an act of revenge. Steaming into the inlet, the Federal gunboats USS Beauregard and USS Oleander took up positions directly opposite New Smyrna and commenced to bombard the little town. According to one eye witness, “The Federal guns were deliberately aimed at the Sheldon Hotel, built on top of an Indian shell mound, and a perfect target. As the Sheldon family and their guest, Jacob Harry Dressner, a young Northerner who hoped to make his way back to New York on a ship going out of the Inlet, were sitting down to a mid-day meal, a shell from one of the gunboats crashed through the hotel, slicing the top off the piano and sending splinters flying”. By days end, the Sheldon Hotel, several ships anchored nearby, and any building suspected of once harboring Confederate soldiers lay completely destroyed. With a blaze of cannon fire, the South’s control of Mosquito Inlet came to a violent end.
Many of the USS Wabash crewmen pictured above were eye witnesses to the Civil War skirmish at Mosquito Inlet.
Although the United States Navy achieved a great level of success in shutting down the Confederacy’s major ports, small isolated bays along the Atlantic and Gulf coast would continue to function as valuable bases for smuggling operations throughout the Civil War. At Mosquito Inlet alone, blockade runners such as the Katie, delivered over 1,800 shipments of arms, ammunition, and other vital commodities destined for the Confederate army. Without these important shipments, the Civil War may have ended far earlier than it did.
Authors comment: The New Smyrna News reported on February 8, 1915, that Postmaster Frank Stone unearthed seven skeletons on his property in Ponce Park (now Ponce Inlet) while grubbing up palmettos, live oak scrub, and bay bushes from the east side of his property. Although the remains could not be positively identified, many speculated that they may have been the remains of soldiers killed during the Civil War. Could they have been the same seven seamen killed during the skirmish in 1862? Although we will never know it is an interesting question to consider.
