Without warships to counteract the Union Navy’s control of the St. John’s river the Confederates made the decision to mine the river. On March 30, 1864, Captain Pliny Bryan from General Beauregard’s staff in Charleston oversaw a detachment of five men from the 2nd FL composed of Lieutenant J.D. O’Hern, Corporal John Brantley, Private Musco Crenshaw, Private William Taylor and Private John Frisbee that worked through the night to place twelve 70 pound black powder torpedoes in the navigation channel of the river off Mandarin Point. The transport ships the Harriet A. Weed, the U.S.S. General Hunter and the Maple Leaf were dispatched to Palatka that same evening. On the return trip to Jacksonville at 4:00 AM on April 1, 1864, the Maple Leaf struck a torpedo tearing a large hole in the hull. The ship sank to the bottom of the river in under seven minutes. The Maple Leaf, a 210 footlong 3250 ton transport steamer, was being piloted by Romeo Murray (a local African-American). Four Black crew members drowned (Simeon Field, Eli Foster, Benjamin Wiggin, and Charles Sumner). Fifty eight passengers and crew escaped into three lifeboats and rowed the 15 miles to Jacksonville. Two weeks later, on April 16th, the General Hunter struck another torpedo and sank within yards of the Maple Leaf, killing one. By mid-summer two more transports, the H.A. Weed and Alice Price, were sunk by torpedoes in the St. Johns resulting in 5 additional deaths.

Over a 10 day period in 1989 over 3000 objects were recovered from the Maple Leaf still on the bottom of the river. Some of these are displayed in the Mandarin Museum and the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville. The ship at the time was carrying baggage from three Union regiments- the 112th NY Volunteers, the 169th NY Volunteers and the 13th Indiana. Some of the items found in the baggage from officers of the 112th NY were fine chinaware plates, glassware, cups and eating utensils. The 112th NY had marched through Johns Island in February of 1864 and it is suspected that many of these items may have been taken from plantations on the island.