A City Historical Marker for Union Raiders Burn Tampa Blockade Runners and a County Historical Marker for Battlefield tell the story of the Hillsborough River Raid and the ensuing Battle of Ballast Point. In October 1863, as the Union vessels USS Tahoma and USS Adela bombarded Fort Brooke and Tampa, a raiding party of 106 sailors with two local Unionist guides commanded by Acting Master Thomas Harris landed at Gadsden Point and made their way northward.

In the Hillsborough River near present-day Lowry Park, they located two blockade runners owned by James McKay, Sr. The Scottish Chief and the Kate Dale were burned by the Union raiders, along with the 167 bales of cotton on them. They also took seven Confederate prisoners. The Confederates set a third vessel, the A.B. Noyes, on fire to prevent its capture.

The raiders then proceeded to Ballast Point where they were attacked by 40 Confederate troops commanded by Captain John Westcott of the 2nd Florida Infantry Battalion as they embarked to return to their ships.

In the ensuing skirmish, the Union force suffered three dead, ten wounded, and five taken prisoner while the Confederates lost six killed and an undetermined number of wounded.

In 2008, underwater archaeologists from the Florida Aquarium in Tampa located the remains of the Kate Dale in the Hillsborough River near Lowry Park, and in 2009 the remains of the Scottish Chief were located further down river.

An exhibit at the Florida Aquarium on local Civil War shipwrecks is in the planning stage

Information Provided by the Florida Department of State.