| Summary: | 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.
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