By Leigh Clifton
A Confederate reenactor takes refuge behind a tree as he loads his musket to take another shot at the Union soldiers.

This time, the South won. If not the war, then at least part of it. The Battle of Ballast Point played out on the green at Ft. DeSoto last Saturday afternoon as reenactment actors dressed in period dress recreated the battle with all the gusto of true Rebels and Yankees. A large crowd was treated to booming cannon fire, muskets flashing smoke and hand to hand combat with swords as the two forces clashed.
The battle looked and sounded so authentic, you could feel the ground rumble as the cannons were shot off; a loud, raucous blast followed by belching columns of smoke that wowed the crowd. Some soldiers fell where they stood; “shot dead”. In the end, the Confederates took five Union soldiers as prisoners of war.
The Battle at Ballast Point was precipitated when two Confederate blockade running ships, owned by the future mayor of Tampa, James Mackay, were burned by Union soldiers in a raid as they advanced up the Hillsborough River. The battle actually happened just outside of Tampa, with the Union soldiers hell-bent on capturing as many blockade running ships as possible. They also wanted to destroy the rebel salt works operations, which dried sea salt to be used for curing provisions that could then be sent to Confederate troops all across the South.
The US Navy had an outpost on Egmont Key, comprised mostly of northern sympathizers and caretakers for the Egmont Key Lighthouse, which was used to spot the Confederate ships bringing in guns and provisions to the city of Tampa.
Union soldiers used Ballast Point as a landing and pickup point for the soldiers who had helped destroy MacKay’s two large ships. Several Confederate troops, who had escaped capture on those ships, alerted troops in Tampa that the Union soldiers would be staging a pickup of some Union troops on Egmont Key. Confederate soldiers hid in the woods and fired on the Union militia, wounding ten, and killing three and taking five prisoners. Both sides claimed victory; the Rebels because they had caused the Union soldiers to run to their ships. The Union considered it a victory for the North because they had achieved their main objective; to destroy two of the most active blockade running ships for the South.