Qualla: Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa/ Photo credit Marque1313, CC BY-SA 3.0. "We don't understand the meaning of the word surrender. There is no such letter in our book." Captain John William Pearson, Confederate States Army, delivered this defiant response from a rowboat in the middle of Tampa Bay on June 30, 1862, facing down a Union gunboat with twenty armed sailors. The USS Sagamore had steamed into the bay that morning, opened her gun ports, turned broadside toward the little village of Tampa, and sent a boat under flag of truce to demand unconditional surrender. Pearson met them with eighteen of his own men, refused to let the Federals set foot on shore, and told them to "pitch in" when they threatened to shell the town. His men gave three cheers for the Southern Confederacy. The Union boat crew, according to Pearson's report, said nothing.

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/dhvq-battle-of-tampa-the-yankee-outrage-that-nobody-won-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won: A Port Worth Watching https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Tampa in 1862 was barely a town. A scattering of buildings clustered near the old army post at Fort Brooke, at the mouth of the Hillsborough River where it emptied into the bay. But small as it was, Tampa's port mattered. Central Florida's cattle ranchers and cotton growers shipp...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/dhvq-battle-of-tampa-the-yankee-outrage-that-nobody-won-a-port-worth-watching.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won: The First Warning Shot https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa/ Photo credit Marque1313, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Sagamore was not Tampa's first uninvited guest. Back on April 13, a Union schooner had anchored behind an island two miles offshore, setting off alarm bells through town. Confederate pickets posted on every road feared the ship was a decoy while Federal troops marched overlan...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/dhvq-battle-of-tampa-the-yankee-outrage-that-nobody-won-the-first-warning-shot.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won: An Evening of Sound and Fury https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa/ Photo credit Marque1313, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two months later, on June 30, the Sagamore made good on the threat. At six o'clock that evening, exactly as promised, the gunboat opened fire with heavy shell and shot. Fort Brooke's defenders answered with their three 24-pounder cannons. For an hour, the two sides traded fire ac...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/dhvq-battle-of-tampa-the-yankee-outrage-that-nobody-won-an-evening-of-sound-and-fury.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won: What Came After https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa/ Photo credit Marque1313, CC BY-SA 3.0. The real consequences arrived later. In October 1863, the Battle of Fort Brooke proved more damaging: a Union gunboat bombarded the fort as a distraction while a raiding party slipped up the Hillsborough River and destroyed several Confederate blockade runners hidden along its ba...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/dhvq-battle-of-tampa-the-yankee-outrage-that-nobody-won-what-came-after.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Tampa: The Yankee Outrage That Nobody Won: A Pennsylvanian's Confederate Battery https://qualla.com/battle-of-tampa/ Photo credit Marque1313, CC BY-SA 3.0. One detail from Captain Pearson's after-action report stands out: he singled out Captain James Gettis of Hillsborough County for decisive leadership of one of the Confederate batteries during the bombardment. Gettis was originally from Pennsylvania. The Civil War's tangled loyalt...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/q/battle-of-tampa-wp/dhvq-battle-of-tampa-the-yankee-outrage-that-nobody-won-a-pennsylvanians-confederate-battery.mp3 0:06 6 full