USS Vicksburg ( 1863 ) USS " Vicksburg " was a wooden steamship built in 1863 at Mystic , Connecticut ; purchased by the United States Navy at New York City on 20 October 1863 ; converted into a gunboat ; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 2 December , Lieutenant Commander L . Braine in command . " Vicksburg " was named in honor of the great victory that General Ulysses S . Grant had recently won at Vicksburg , Mississippi . Service history . On 7 December , a group of 17 Confederate sympathizers masquerading as passengers seized the steamer " Chesapeake " off Cape Cod , Massachusetts . The panic caused by that daring Confederate exploit prompted the Navy to order " Vicksburg " on 21 December to take up station off Sandy Hook , N . J . , and detain for inspection all commercial ships outbound from New York . She performed similar duty off Staten Island , N . Y . , through January 1864 until she was finally relieved on 8 February and ordered to sail for Hampton Roads , Va . , for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . " Vicksburg " put into Hampton Roads two days later and was deployed with the blockade off Wilmington , North Carolina , on 18 February . In the spring , while on temporary duty off the coast of South Carolina , the gunboat seized the blockade - running British schooner " Indian " east of Charleston on 30 April . Returning to North Carolina , " Vicksburg " towed the stricken mortar schooner " Oliver H . Lee " to Beaufort , N . C . , on 17 May and 18 May and chased a blockade runner on 31 May , recovering 79 bales of cotton thrown overboard by the vessel ' s crew . The gunboat put into Hampton Roads for repairs in June . On 11 July , " Vicksburg " received orders north to Annapolis , Maryland , to help protect Union emplacements there from Confederate raiders . She arrived off Annapolis in the Severn River on 13 July . Lt . Comdr . Braine found that the town was apprehensive over the proximity of Confederate forces and was mainly defended by 300 patients from the local hospital . Together with the gunboat , Lt . Comdr . Braine organized the town defenses and predicted that he would " give the rebels a warm reception . " That day , he also sent a boat party up the South River under the command of Acting Ensign Francis G . Osborn . The two - day expedition destroyed all means of crossing the South River and thereby protected the rear of the Union forces at Annapolis . " Vicksburg " received orders to return to Hampton Roads on 15 July , arrived there on 17 July , and left for the blockade off Wilmington later in July in a convoy consisting of the side - wheel steamer and four tugboats . While deployed on patrol and reconnaissance duty off Wilmington , " Vicksburg " unsuccessfully chased a blockade - running side - wheel steamer on the night of 6 August and another on the night of 23 August which she found aground at daylight the next morning . The gunboat underwent repairs soon thereafter and spent September making an extensive survey of Confederate Fort Fisher and of other Southern land defenses in the Cape Fear River . After completing this mission on 10 October , she assisted in the capture of the new , steel - hulled , blockade - running British steamer " Bat " off the Cape Fear River and , on 20 October and 24 October , participated in two unsuccessful nighttime chases of blockade - running steamers in the same area . " Vicksburg " remained off the Cape Fear River for the duration of the year and , on 26 December , assisted in covering the evacuation of troops after the unsuccessful first attack upon Fort Fisher on 24 December and 25 December . " Vicksburg " began the final year of the war assisting Union forces in mop - up operations following the fall of Fort Fisher during a second amphibious assault which took place between 13 January and 15 January 1865 . She also participated in the bombardment of Half Moon Battery , situated on the coastal flank of the Confederate defense line which crossed Cape Fear Peninsula six miles above Fort Fisher , on 11 February . On 22 February , she was ordered north to Hampton Roads . In March , " Vicksburg " was one of several vessels sent to White House , Virginia , to support General Ulysses Grant ' s siege of Richmond by keeping open navigation between White House and the mouth of the York River . With the end of the Civil War in April 1865 , " Vicksburg " was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 29 April and sold at auction to C . C . & H . Cable on 12 July . She was documented for merchant service on 7 August 1865 . Her name last appeared on lists of merchant vessels in the autumn of 1868 .