Built in 1855, the wooden steam frigate USS Minnesota served as the flagship of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron under Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham. On August 28-29, 1861, seven United States Navy warships bombarded Forts Hatteras and Clark in the first use by the United States Navy of ships sailing in a single oval formation, an innovative maneuver that allowed a continuous barrage of several thousand shells. Seven African American sailors who had been mustered in at Boston, Massachusetts manned the forward gun on USS Minnesota and fired on the Confederate fortifications: William Brown, Charles Johnson, George Moore, George H. Roberts, George Sales, William H. White, and Henry Williams. During the Civil War, Hotel de Afrique became the first safe haven for African Americans in North Carolina. Reported by The New York Times on Friday, January 29, 1862, Captain Clark had erected a commodious wooden house on the beach for fugitives recently arrived from Roanoke Island, including Franklin Tillet, who came by boat with fifteen members of his household and whose group proved useful as expert boatmen working along the inlet and shore. As the need for refuge increased, this small structure and nine wooden barracks behind Fort Clark became the predecessor to the Freedman's Colony on Roanoke Island, and the hotel stood approximately 1-1/2 miles west of this location.