On 6 February 1862, while serving as the First Master of , Hoel was wounded during the Battle of Fort Henry. Less than two months later, on 4 April, he volunteered to pilot gunboat "Carondelet" in her famous run past the Rebel batteries at Island Number 10 to reach Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army at New Madrid. The gunboat's valiant dash through a hailstorm of Confederate fire enabled Union forces to cross the river and to take this key island with quantities of cannon, equipment and stores. It thus opened the Mississippi for operations by Union gunboats bringing the Federal armies in a long stride to within sight of Memphis.