A small battle took place in the Tampa Bay area over a two-day period early in the Civil War. The United States gunboat Sagamore made an attack upon the town of Tampa, Fla. After firing sixty or seventy shells, she succeeded in silencing the battery on shore. Soldiers disembarked, went into town, and demanded Tampa's surrender to the Union. A small Confederate militia group stationed in Tampa called the Osceola Rangers refused to surrender. The Union gunboat then began to open fire. The Union General warned the soldiers that they would fire again beginning at 6 pm in order to get civilians out of the way. The Osceola Rangers remained steadfast in their refusal to surrender. Gunfire began again and shots rang out most of the next day into Tampa. Eventually, in the late afternoon of July 1st, the Union soldiers stopped firing and the gunboat withdrew. Luckily, there were no casualties in this battle.
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