On June 30, 1862, the Union gunboat USS Sagamore steamed into Tampa Bay to demand the surrender of the small Confederate (CSA) garrison at Fort Brooke.

Neither side inflicted real damage or suffered any casualties, and after firing several more rounds the next morning from beyond the range of the fort's guns, the Sagamore returned to its blockade station near the mouth of Tampa Bay.

The Yankee officer then gave him twenty-four hours to take the women and children out of the town as they would attack the place at the end of that time.

A strong picket guard on all day and night.” On April 14 Watson wrote, “No sign of the enemy but there is a bright lookout for them.”[4] By the summer of 1862, plans were in place in Washington to further tighten this blockade by capturing major ports throughout the Confederacy, à la New Orleans, which was captured in April 1862, as well as other towns along the Mississippi River (most notably Vicksburg).

It was common knowledge among the Union's chief military strategists that the sooner the blockade could effectively seal off the Confederacy from any level of commerce, the sooner the import-dependent Confederates would be forced to surrender, lacking the materiel necessary to sustain a war of attrition, as the Union infantry would ultimately have to attempt to put on the Confederacy at various points in the war.

On June 30, USS Sagamore,[5] a Union gunboat, came into Tampa Bay, opened her ports, and turned her broadside on the town.

Troops from the USS Adela landed in Tampa without opposition, destroyed or took remaining supplies in unoccupied Fort Brooke, and left town after two days.

[10] Two cannons from Fort Brooke that were dumped in the Hillsborough River during this raid were found and restored and are now on display in Plant Park on the University of Tampa campus.