Capture of the USS Water Witch
Vernonburg, Chatham County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Capture of the USS "Water Witch". In May, 1864, the USS "Water Witch" (80 officers and men and 4 guns), Lt. Comdr. Austin Pendergrast, USN, was on patrol duty in Ossabaw Sound. On the 31st, Flag Officer Wm. W. Hunter, CSN, assigned Lt. Thos. P. Pelot, CSN, to command a boat expedition designed to surprise and capture the vessel. This expedition - 15 officers and 117 men, in 7 boats - arrived at Beaulieu Battery via Skidaway Narrows late on June 1st, only to find that "Water Witch" was cruising in St. Catherine's Sound. She retuned to Ossabaw Sound next day and anchored for the night in the mouth of the Great Ogeechee River, about 1 1/2 miles S.S.E. of Raccoon Key. About 2 A.M. the 3rd - a dark and stormy night - the boat party approached "Water Witch" in two columns, pulling cautiously with muffled oars. When hailed, Lt. Pelot gave the order to board. The boats closed in, and the boarding parties cut through the nettings and swarmed over the rails. After a desperate fight with cutlass and pistol, in which Lt. Pelot - the first aboard - was killed, his men cleared the deck and the ship was theirs. Lt. Jos. Price, CSN, assumed command. To prevent her recapture, he moved the ship through Hell Gate and up Vernon River to the protection of Beaulieu Battery, whose guns turned back such an attempt on the 5th. At Beaulieu, Lt. W. W. Carners, CSN, reported on board, assumed command, and moved "Water Witch" up-river to White Bluff to refit her and to receive her new crew. 025-51 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1957
Erected by Georgia Historical Commission
The Story
In the spring of 1864, Confederate sailors devised a daring night raid to seize a Union gunboat patrolling the Georgia coast. On a dark, stormy June night, boarding parties rowed with muffled oars up to the USS Water Witch, cut through her nettings, and captured her in a fierce hand-to-hand fight that killed their commander, Lt. Thomas Pelot.
Why it matters
The capture of the Water Witch was a rare Confederate naval success, illustrating the constant struggle over the Union blockade that slowly strangled the South.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1864 the United States Navy had thrown a vast blockade around the Confederate coastline, part of a strategy to strangle the South's ability to trade cotton for weapons and supplies. Along the intricate sounds and rivers of the Georgia coast, Union gunboats patrolled the shallow, tricky waters, watching for blockade-runners and guarding the approaches to Savannah.
The Confederate Navy, vastly outnumbered and outbuilt, could rarely challenge such power in open battle. Instead it turned to cunning: small-boat expeditions, night raids, and daring cutting-out operations in which sailors rowed out under cover of darkness to seize a warship by surprise. These were high-risk gambles that depended on stealth, nerve, and hand-to-hand courage rather than firepower.
The waters described on this marker — Ossabaw Sound, St. Catherine's Sound, the mouth of the Great Ogeechee River, the passage called Hell Gate — form a maze of tidal channels perfectly suited to such an enterprise. In this labyrinth of dark water and shifting tides, a bold plan and a stormy night could, just occasionally, overturn the odds.
People & events
In May 1864 the USS Water Witch, a gunboat carrying about 80 officers and men and four guns under Lieutenant Commander Austin Pendergrast, was on patrol in Ossabaw Sound. On May 31, Flag Officer William W. Hunter of the Confederate Navy assigned Lieutenant Thomas P. Pelot to lead a boat expedition designed to surprise and capture her — 15 officers and 117 men crowded into seven boats.
The raiders' first attempt was foiled by the simple uncertainty of naval patrol: they reached their staging point only to find the Water Witch had moved to another sound. When she returned and anchored on a dark and stormy night in early June, the moment came. About two in the morning, the boats crept forward in two columns, oars muffled, closing silently on the anchored ship.
When a sentry hailed them, Pelot gave the order to board. His men cut through the protective nettings and swarmed over the rails into a desperate fight of cutlass and pistol. Pelot, the first man aboard, was killed in the struggle — but his sailors cleared the deck and took the ship. Lieutenant Joseph Price then assumed command and, to keep her from being retaken, moved the prize through Hell Gate and up the Vernon River under the protection of the Beaulieu Battery, whose guns beat back a recapture attempt on June 5.
Its place in the American story
The capture of the Water Witch was a rare bright moment for the Confederate Navy, and that rarity is precisely what gives it meaning. Against a Union naval force it could almost never match, the South had seized a functioning enemy warship in a bold night action — a genuine, if small, victory.
But the episode also underscores the larger truth of the war at sea: the blockade was a slow, grinding, ever-present pressure, and moments like this one, however dramatic, could not lift it. For every gunboat cut out on a stormy night, the Union could field many more. The struggle over these Georgia sounds was one small front in a coast-wide effort that steadily choked off Confederate trade and helped decide the war.
The raid also stands as a vivid example of a classic form of naval warfare — the cutting-out expedition — carried out with muffled oars and cold steel. It is a reminder that even in an industrial war of ironclads and heavy guns, victory could still turn on a boatload of determined men rowing quietly through the dark.
If you visit
This is a landmark on the Georgia coast near Vernonburg, and to appreciate it you have to think like a sailor. Look out toward the water and imagine the geography the inscription so carefully lays out: the sounds and river mouths, the narrow passage grimly named Hell Gate, the tidal channels through which a captured ship was spirited to safety.
The marker rewards close reading because it is unusually rich in specifics — the numbers of men and boats, the muffled oars, the desperate fight at the rail, the commander who was first aboard and paid for it with his life. Let those details build the scene in your mind; few markers give you so complete a story to reconstruct.
If you are exploring the coastal history around Savannah and its sounds, this stop pairs the beauty of the low-country waterways with a genuinely gripping piece of naval drama. Stand where the land meets those quiet channels, picture a dark and stormy June night, and you will understand why this small victory earned a place in the region's memory.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Thomas P. Pelot
- · Austin Pendergrast
Themes & tags
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