Following her arrival at Boston, Massachusetts on 27 September, she sailed to join Flag Officer Samuel Du Pont's South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Departing Norfolk, Virginia on 29 October for Port Royal, South Carolina, as part of the largest U.S. naval squadron assembled to that time, the sloop steamed in the battleline on 7 November as Du Pont's squadron pounded Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island, forcing the Confederates to abandon the emplacement, thereby allowing a combined Union Army and Navy Force to land and occupy this important base of operations. "Mohican" was hit six times by Confederate shells in this engagement, suffering superficial hull damage and having one man killed and seven wounded. One of the wounded officers was Acting Master Isaac D. Seyburn.