Tampa in the Civil War

Tampa spent the Civil War as a Confederate town under military rule, shelled once in 1862, raided in 1863 and retaken by Union forces in 1864.

The City Clerk biography of James McKay Sr. says the city had rented the Fort Brooke military reservation for eighteen months until April 1861, when Confederate troops occupied the fort and declared martial law in Tampa. The clerk's incorporation history adds that on February 22, 1862, the city government was suspended by Confederate military authorities. The National Park Service's Civil War battle list names two engagements at Tampa: Tampa (CWSAC reference FL002), fought in June and July 1862, and Fort Brooke (CWSAC reference FL004), fought in October 1863.

City of Tampa pages describe the war's effect on the town in two different ways. The City of Tampa history page says that in spite of the blockade and Federal occupation during the Civil War, the area grew steadily. The City Clerk biography of John Thomas Lesley says that at the end of 1865 Tampa resembled a ghost town, with the majority of residents gone and no municipal government. Both statements are official; the second is the more specific about the condition of the town when the war ended.

The Battle of Tampa was a Union gunboat bombardment of the town from June 30 to July 1, 1862, which the National Park Service records as a Confederate victory.

The Park Service battle summary places it in the campaign it calls Union Operations Against Tampa, with Captain Andrew Drake as the Union commander and Captain J Pearson as the Confederate commander. On June 30 a Union gunboat came into Tampa Bay, turned her broadside on the town and opened her ports, then sent a launch carrying 20 men and a lieutenant under a flag of truce to demand the surrender of Tampa.

The Confederates in Tampa refused. The Union officer said shelling would begin at 6:00 pm, allowing time to evacuate non-combatants from the town, and firing continued sporadically into the afternoon of July 1, when the gunboat withdrew. The summary lists estimated casualties as 0 on both sides.

James McKay Sr. was a former Tampa mayor whose ships ran the Union blockade to Cuba, which made his vessels a Union target.

The City Clerk biography says McKay was born in Thurso, Scotland, on May 17, 1808, came to the United States in 1837 and moved to Tampa in 1846. He bought schooners to carry cargo from Tampa to Cuba, Central America and South America, began buying large cattle herds for shipment to Cuba in 1858, and served as the 6th mayor of Tampa from February 12, 1859, to February 1, 1860. Hillsborough County history says the county courthouse project was turned over to Capt. James McKay in 1847 and that he completed a two-story building at a cost of $1,358.

When the war began, the clerk's biography says, McKay and a handful of other Tampa men used their vessels to run the Union naval blockade, bringing guns, ammunition, foodstuffs and other goods for the Confederate army and civilians. A Union ship seized McKay and his vessel on October 14, 1861, and he was held in Key West until March 1862, when he was paroled after taking an oath of allegiance to the United States.

The same biography says that in 1863 Confederate Major Pleasant W. White appointed McKay commissary agent for the 5th District of Florida, and that McKay seems to have frustrated attempts to supply the Confederate army with beef through a series of excuses. Confederate inspectors could not prove intentional delays. Another Tampa leader served in Confederate uniform: the clerk biography of John Thomas Lesley says he formed a company of Tampa men at the outbreak of the war, was elected its captain, and was commissioned a major in the Confederate Army in October 1862.

In October 1863 two Union ships shelled Fort Brooke as a diversion while a landing party marched from Ballast Point to the Hillsborough River and captured blockade runners there.

The Park Service summary of the Battle of Fort Brooke places it in the Expedition to Destroy Ships in Hillsboro River, with Lieutenant Commander Alexander Semmes as the Union commander and Captain John Westcott as the Confederate commander. The two ships bombarded the fort on October 16, while a landing party under Acting Master T.R. Harris went ashore at Ballast Point and marched 14 miles to the Hillsborough River to capture several steamers.

Harris and his men surprised and captured the blockade running steamer Scottish Chief and the sloop Kate Dale, and the Confederates destroyed the steamer A.B. Noyes so that it could not be captured. On the way back to the ship, a detachment of the Fort Brooke garrison surprised the Union party, causing casualties. The Park Service records the result as a Union victory and lists 16 estimated casualties, all on the Union side.

Ballast Point itself takes its name from the harbor. A MacDill Air Force Base history article says ships had to stop there to unload ballast stones to get through the shallows leading to Fort Brooke, and that the point sits near the south gate entrance to MacDill.

Union forces retook Fort Brooke in a raid in May 1864, and Tampa came out of the war without a working city government.

The MacDill Air Force Base history says Fort Brooke was captured by the Confederates for a time but was retaken during a Union raid in May of 1864. The City of Tampa history page refers to Federal occupation during the war.

Rebuilding a government took years. The City Clerk incorporation history records elections on October 25, 1866, held under the Florida Legislature to reorganize the City of Tampa. The Lesley biography says Edward A. Clarke, elected mayor that day, faced an empty treasury, and that the arrival of federal troops and administrators to carry out Reconstruction deepened local resentment.

Lesley ran in 1869 on a single promise, that the state legislature should revoke Tampa's charter because of the city's destitute finances. He was elected mayor on March 1, 1869, and on October 4, 1869, the legislature revoked the charter; Hillsborough County then took over city property and services. The incorporation history records the August 11, 1873, town meeting at which citizens voted to reincorporate as the Town of Tampa. McKay, per his clerk biography, resumed his cattle and shipping business after the war and died in Tampa on November 11, 1876.

The Fort Brooke tract downtown, Ballast Point near MacDill Air Force Base and the Hillsborough River are the main places tied to Tampa's Civil War events.

Fort Brooke dates to 1824, when, according to the City of Tampa history page, four companies of the U.S. Army established it to protect the harbor at Tampa Bay. Its name survives in Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park, a 4.5-acre city park along Garrison Channel at 601 Old Water Street, open 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, with a pier, playground equipment and a memorial to the Seminole Indian Wars.

The burial place of one Tampa Confederate officer is on record. The City Clerk says John Thomas Lesley, who later served in the Florida Legislature and the Florida Senate, died on July 13, 1913, and was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the National Park Service battle summaries for Tampa and Fort Brooke, the MacDill Air Force Base history article, five City of Tampa pages (city history, Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park, the incorporation history and the McKay and Lesley mayor biographies) and the Hillsborough County history page.