The first USS Pocahontas, a screw steamer built at Medford, Massachusetts in 1852 as City of Boston, and purchased by the Navy at Boston, Massachusetts on 20 March 1855, was the first United States Navy ship to be named for Pocahontas, the Algonquian wife of Virginia colonist John Rolfe. She was originally commissioned as USS Despatch – the second U.S. Navy ship of that name – on 17 January 1856, with Lieutenant T. M. Crossan in command, and was recommissioned and renamed in 1860, seeing action in the American Civil War. As Pocahontas, one of her junior officers was Alfred Thayer Mahan, who would later achieve international fame as a military writer and theorist of naval power.
USS Young America was a Confederate steamer captured by the Union Navy’s blockade vessels, and subsequently placed in-service in the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Aster was a steam operated tugboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Unit was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Laburnum was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a tugboat and dispatch boat to serve Union ships on blockade duty.
USS Larkspur was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a tugboat.
USS Lavender was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a tugboat.
USS Marigold was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat, dispatch boat and also as a gunboat in the blockade of the Confederacy.
USS Martin was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy for various tasks, including those of a torpedo boat, tugboat, and a picket boat, patrolling Confederate waterways to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Mistletoe was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was planned by the Union Navy for use as a tugboat whose task it was to tow other ships or to free them when they became stuck or otherwise inoperable.
USS Bazely was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy in a tugboat/patrol boat role in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
USS Zeta was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a torpedo boat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
USS Kalmia was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
USS Amaranthus was a screw steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
The first USS Anemone was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
USS Gamma was a small steamer acquired by the Union Navy during close of the American Civil War.
USS Polaris, originally called the America, was an 1864-screw steamer procured by the Union Navy as USS Periwinkle during the final months of the American Civil War. She served the Union Navy's struggle against the Confederate States as a gunboat.
USS Pink was a steamer commissioned by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She served the Union Navy's struggle against the Confederate States of America in various ways: as a tugboat, a gunboat, and as a small transport.
USS Poppy was a steamer commissioned by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Rescue was a small (111-ton) steamer commissioned by the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
United States