On July 9, 1862, the commanding officer of the Union bark Arthur, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant John W. Kittredge, temporarily left that warship and embarked in the tender Corypheus whose shallow draft permitted her to operate in the shoal waters of Aransas Bay, Texas.

The following day, at the town of Aransas on San Jose Island, Corypheus captured the small sloop, Belle Italia, which Kittredge thereafter used as another tender to Arthur.

"[citation needed] At dawn on the 17th, after the passage of 48 hours during which they were allowed to evacuate the town's noncombatants, the defenders opened fire upon the Union ships that promptly replied spiritedly, silencing the Confederate Fort Kinney.

Covered by guns from the other warships, Belle Italia landed a 12 pounder rifled howitzer and a party of 30 men "...with a view of getting in position to take the enemy's battery.

Belle Italia next appears in an expedition back to Corpus Christi to secure the release of the family of Judge Edmund Jackson Davis, a prominent political figure in Texas who had remained loyal to the Union and had escaped into exile to serve its cause.

Kittredge, again in Corypheus, entered Corpus Christi Bay with the Union schooner USS Breaker and landed under a flag of truce to ask that he be allowed to embark Mrs. Davis and reunite her with her husband.

The next morning, the sloop joined in the shelling of several small vessels that escaped into the shallow waters of Laguna de la Madre where the Union ships could not follow.

Because of fear of harming Kittredge (who would ultimately be dismissed from the service a year later) and his men, Belle Italia and her consorts were unable to fire on the enemy ashore.