USS Choctaw was a large (1,004-ton) steamer built for the merchant service, but acquired by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War.
The first USS Powhatan was a sidewheel steam frigate in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for Powhatan, a Native American chief of eastern Virginia. She was one of the last, and largest, of the United States Navy's paddle frigates.
The first USS Wyoming of the United States Navy was a wooden-hulled screw sloop that fought on the Union side during the American Civil War. Sent to the Pacific Ocean to search for the CSS Alabama, Wyoming eventually came upon the shores of Japan and engaged Japanese land and sea forces. On 16 July 1863, Wyoming won the first-ever United States naval victory over Japan in the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits.
The first USS Sonoma was a sidewheel gunboat that served in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for Sonoma Creek in northern California, Sonoma County, California, and the town of Sonoma, California, that in turn were named for one of the chiefs of the Chocuyen Indians of that region.
USS Hendrick Hudson was a schooner-rigged screw steamer.
The first USS Lackawanna was a screw-propelled sloop-of-war in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was named after the Lackawanna River in Pennsylvania.
USS Fort Jackson was a wooden sidewheel steamer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was successful in enforcing the Union blockade of Confederate ports, capturing five ships carrying contraband. She participated in the battles for Fort Fisher, which effectively closed the port of Wilmington, North Carolina to the Confederacy. Most notably, the surrender of Confederate forces in Texas was signed aboard the ship, formally ending the Civil War in that portion of the country.
The first USS Nereus, a screw steamer built at New York in 1863, was purchased by the Union Navy from William P. Williams on 5 October 1863; and commissioned at New York Navy Yard 19 April 1864, Commander John C. Howell in command.
USS Vanderbilt was a heavy (3,360-ton) passenger steamship obtained by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War and utilized as a cruiser.
USS Honduras was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS General Lyon, originally the De Soto, was recaptured from the Confederate States of America and renamed USS De Soto, and then USS General Lyon, after Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon.
USS Clyde was a paddle steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War, and commissioned to patrol Florida waters. She had been built in 1861 in Glasgow, Scotland as the Clyde passenger steamer Neptune, but sold in 1863 to become a blockade runner, making two successful round trips to Mobile, Alabama before capture. After the war she was sold to mercantile interests as Indian River, but lost shortly afterwards.
USS Magnolia was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was planned to be used by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
The first USS Emma was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a picket and patrol vessel on Confederate waterways.
USS Wyandotte, originally USS Western Port, was a steamer acquired by the Navy as a gunboat for the Paraguay expedition in 1858. When the crisis of the American Civil War occurred, she operated in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
USS Galatea was a large steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Glaucus was a large steamship acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The Union Navy planned to use her as a gunboat in the blockade of ports of the Confederate States of America, but, also found it useful to use her to transport the president of Colombia to Cartagena, Colombia.
USS Shepherd Knapp was a large (838-ton) ship with eight guns, purchased by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War.
Throughout the American Civil War, blockade runners were seagoing steam ships that were used to get through the Union blockade that extended some 3,500 miles (5,600 km) along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and the lower Mississippi River. The Confederate states were largely without industrial capability and could not provide the quantity of arms and other supplies needed to fight against the industrial North. To meet this need blockade runners were built in Scotland and England and were used to import the guns, ordnance and other supplies that the Confederacy desperately needed, in exchange for cotton that the British textile industry needed greatly. To penetrate the blockade, these relatively lightweight shallow draft ships, mostly built in British shipyards and specially designed for speed, but not suited for transporting large quantities of cotton, had to cruise undetected, usually at night, through the Union blockade. The typical blockade runners were privately owned vessels often operating with a letter of marque issued by the Confederate States of America. If spotted, the blockade runners would attempt to outmaneuver or simply outrun any Union ships on blockade patrol, often successfully.
Captain Robert F. R. Lewis was an officer in the United States Navy. He participated in the Paraguay Expedition, fought in the Mexican War and American Civil War, and served briefly as commander of the Asiatic Squadron.
United States