 Confederates in the bay also set ablaze and abandoned the armed schooner "Elma" and the sloop "Hannah".The small Union squadron then decided to attack Corpus Christi.On August 13, 1862, a party went ashore and demanded, as Kittredge later reported,

the evacuation of the place by the military, but consented to the inhabitants remaining, promising to respect their private property...

Kittredge warned the Texans, on the other hand, that

...they must remove their women and children if they intended to make a stand.