On September 21, 1863 a Confederate States Navy screw steamer called "Phantom", which was acting as a blockade runner, was chased into the shallows along the island by the "USS Connecticut". The ship was carrying rifle muskets, cannons, other arms, lead, whiskey, and gin. The crew set fire to "Phantom" and abandoned ship. Confederate sharpshooters shot and killed a U.S. Navy landsman who approached "Phantom" in an attempt to put out the fire. Following the shooting, "USS Connecticut" destroyed the ship in the New Topsail Inlet, just north of the island. Another Confederate blockade runner, the Anglo-Confederate Trading Company steamer "Wild Dayrell", wrecked in Rich Inlet, on the north side of the island, on February 1, 1864. The shipwrecks are part of the Cape Fear Civil War Shipwreck Discontiguous District.