Waterloo Shelled by Union Gunboats

Waterloo Shelled by Union Gunboats

Josiah Higgins; Civil War; USS Cottage; Waterloo, AL; Lauderdale County, AL; Gunboats

The city of Waterloo was shelled by Union gunboats in July 1862. Near the end of July 1862, older men from the town of Waterloo fired on the USS Cottage a transport vessel. The escorting gunboats returned fire, shelling the town. Union soldiers disembarked and arrested several men from the town led by resident Josiah Higgins. The men were sent to federal prison in Alton, Illinois. A member of the group, riverboat captain John Thomas Humphrey died in a makeshift prison camp at McDowell College in St. Louis, Missouri. Higgins was subsequently released and returned to Waterloo.

Michael Williams, University of North Alabama

McDonald, William Lindsey. A walk through the past : people and places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. n.p.: [Killen, Ala.] : Bluewater Pub., 2003., 2003. UNA Library Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed April 30, 2015).

Alabama Cultural Resource Survey

July 1862

Photo from following websites:
http://www.altonweb.com/history/civilwar/confed/prison.jpg
Photo from following websites:
http://records.ancestry.com/josiah_higgins_records.ashx?pid=36523890

Photo of Josiah Higgins and Prison Camp in Alton, Illinois