Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, until January 1862 "Louisiana" operated along the Virginia coast, blocking the passage of Confederate blockade runners, and attacking them at their bases. The "Louisiana" also participated in operations like the battle for Roanoke Island on 7–8 February 1862 and the Battle of Elizabeth City on 10 February, which denied the use of coastal inlets and seaboard towns to the blockade runners and tied down Confederate troops to guard those bases which could be held. On 13 September 1861, with , "Louisiana" engaged CSS "Patrick Henry" off Newport News, Virginia, but shot from both sides fell short. Two of her boats destroyed a schooner fitting out as a Confederate privateer in the Battle of Cockle Creek near Chincoteague Inlet 5 October, and two days later she captured schooner "S. T. Carrison" with a cargo of wood near Wallops Island.