The little known battle of Cockle Creek

  Lately I have been reading alot of stories of the "unknown" battles of the Civil war. One of them happened at Chincoteque Island Virginia in 1861.

On the evening of September 28 1861, eight small boats were seen rowing toward Chincoteague Inlet Virginia from the mainland. An alarm bell rang at the W.H. Watson and Company warehouse, and 94 armed men from Chincoteague responded, taking up positions by their warehouses and docks. The boats, however, weren't attacking Chincoteague; they were marking the channel with lanterns for two sloops and a large schooner to enter the inlet.

 By dawn, the three ships anchored near Cockle Creek, replacing the British flag on the schooner, Venus, with the Confederate banner. On the afternoon of the 25th, an oyster sloop commanded by Edward Whaley Jr., crewed by William Lynch, John Jester, Henry Savage, and Robert Snead, set off to Hampton Roads to again warn the Navy. Escorted by guard boats to the flagship, the steam frigate USS Minnesota, they presented their case to Captain Goldsborough and then dined in Minnesota's great cabin. Four sailors from Minnesota, armed with rifles and cutlasses, accompanied them back to Chincoteague, pledging immediate aid.

On September 30, Navy Lieutenant Commander Alexander Murray arrived at Chincoteague with 90 men aboard the propeller-driven, iron-hull steamer, USS Louisiana.

Meanwhile, the Venus was quickly transformed into a privateer with ten guns: besides cannons, 1,000 New England rifles, shot, and three tons of powder were put aboard. This 135-foot (41-meter) schooner, with her broad beam and shallow draft, would have been ideal for preying on ships entering or leaving Delaware Bay.

But at 9 a.m. on October 5, two boats from Louisiana were launched and attacked the Venus with howitzers. Louisiana navigated through Chincoteague Inlet and fired her 32-pounder. A force of 300 Virginians tried to cut off the Louisiana's boats, but Federal crews attacked and boarded Venus. The heavy fire from Louisiana silenced the Virginian defenses, and the Federal boarding party set fire to Venus, burning her to the waterline before she sank in Cockle Creek. 

The two accompanying sloops were captured and taken to Norfolk as war prizes. Upon hearing the news, Winfield Scott reportedly ordered Chincoteague oysters and Bermuda onions at Willard's Hotel.