In December 1864, one of the few battles between Confederate gunboats and Union field artillery was fought on the Savannah River near Colerain Plantation, where units of Sherman's army had occupied the area on December 10. Expecting a Confederate naval flotilla that had been protecting a railroad bridge upstream to try to return to Savannah, Captain C. E. Winegar's battery was posted on a bluff about one mile east. Early on the morning of December 12, the CSS Sampson and Macon and their tender, the Resolute, tried to run past the Federal battery, and a terrific fire from both sides followed. The gunboats were hit several times, but when they could not get past, the vessels turned around. In the maneuver, the Resolute collided with the gunboats and drifted helplessly onto Argyle Island, where troops of the 3rd Wisconsin Regiment captured her. By burning barrels of bacon in their furnaces, the two gunboats gained enough steam to get out of range and escaped to Augusta.