USS Gettysburg ( 1858 ) The first USS " Gettysburg " was a steamer in the Union Navy . The ship was built in Glasgow , Scotland in 1858 , named " Douglas " , and operated for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company between Liverpool , United Kingdom and Douglas on the Isle of Man until November 1862 . She was then sold to the Confederacy , renamed " Margaret and Jessie " , and operated as a blockade runner until her capture by the Union on 5 November 1863 . The ship was renamed " Gettysburg " , and commissioned into the Union Navy on 2 May 1864 . During her military service , " Gettysburg " operated with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , was involved in both the first and second attacks on Fort Fisher , helped lay telegraph cables between Key West and Havana and undertook navigational surveys of the Caribbean and the Mediterranean . " Gettysburg " was decommissioned on 6 May 1879 and sold two days later . Pre - Civil War . Isle of Man Steam Packet Company , 1858 - 1862 . Due to increasing passenger traffic between the Isle of Man and England , it was decided in 1858 that a larger , faster ship would be ordered for the packet fleet . During trials , she achieved , and was declared the fastest Channel Steamer in existence during the period . In November 1858 , she was sold to Cunard , Wilson & Co , on behalf of the Confederate agents , Fraser , Trenholm & Co . She was renamed " Margaret and Jessie " and sailed in gray livery for the Confederate States . 1863 capture . " Margaret and Jessie " was captured as a blockade runner on 5 November 1863 by Army transport " Fulton " , , and off Wilmington , North Carolina . She was purchased from the New York Prize Court by the Navy and commissioned " Gettysburg " at New York Navy Yard on 2 May 1864 , Lieutenant Roswell Lamson commanding . Civil War . North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . A fast , strong steamer , " Gettysburg " was assigned blockading duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , and departed New York on 7 May . She arrived at Beaufort , North Carolina on 14 May and from there took station at the entrance to the Cape Fear River . For the next seven months , " Gettysburg " was engaged in the vital business of capturing blockade runners carrying supplies to the strangling South . She captured several ships , and occasionally performed other duties . On 8 October , for instance , she rescued six survivors from schooner " Home " , which had capsized in a squall . Battle of Fort Fisher . " Gettysburg " took part in the attack on Fort Fisher on 24 – 25 December 1864 . " Gettysburg " assisted with the devastating bombardment prior to the landings by Army troops , and during the actual landings stood in close to shore to furnish cover for the assault . " Gettysburg " s boats were used to help transport troops to the beaches . With the failure of the first attack on the Confederate works , plans were laid for another assault , this time including a landing force of sailors and marines to assault the sea face of the fort . In this second attack on 15 January 1865 , " Gettysburg " again engaged the fort in the preliminary bombardment , and furnished a detachment of sailors under Lt . Roswell Lamson and other officers in an assault , which was stopped under the ramparts of Fort Fisher . Lamson and a group of officers and men were forced to spend the night in a ditch under Confederate guns before they could escape . Though failing to take the sea face of Fort Fisher , the attack by the Navy diverted enough of the defenders to make the Army assault successful . " Gettysburg " suffered two men killed and six wounded in the assault . " Gettysburg " spent the remaining months of the war on blockade duty off Wilmington , North Carolina , and operated from April – June between Boston , Massachusetts and Norfolk , Virginia carrying freight and passengers . She was decommissioned on 23 June at New York Navy Yard . Post - war . Caribbean , 1866 - 1875 . Recommissioning on 3 December 1866 , " Gettysburg " made a cruise to the Caribbean Sea , returning to Washington on 18 February , and decommissioning again on 1 March 1867 . " Gettysburg " went back into commission on 3 March 1868 at Norfolk and put to sea on 28 March on special service in the Caribbean . Until July 1868 , she visited various ports in the area protecting American interests , among them Kingston , Jamaica , Havana , Cuba , and ports of Haiti . From 3 July - 13 August , " Gettysburg " assisted in the laying of a telegraph cable from Key West to Havana , and joined with scientists from the Hydrographic Office in a cruise to determine the longitudes of West Indian points using the electric telegraph . From 13 August 1868 – 1 October 1869 , she cruised between various Haitian ports and Key West . " Gettysburg " arrived at the New York Navy Yard on 8 October , decommissioned the same day , and entered the Yard for repairs . " Gettysburg " was laid up in ordinary until 6 November 1873 , when she again commissioned at Washington Navy Yard . She spent several months transporting men and supplies to the various Navy Yards on the Atlantic coast , and on 25 February 1874 anchored in Pensacola harbor to embark members of the survey team seeking routes for an inter - oceanic canal in Nicaragua . " Gettysburg " transported the engineers to Aspinwall , Panama and Greytown , Nicaragua , and returned them to Norfolk on 10 May 1874 . After several more trips on the Atlantic coast with passengers and supplies , the ship again decommissioned on 9 April 1875 at Washington Navy Yard . Recommissioned on 21 September , " Gettysburg " departed Washington for Norfolk , where she arrived on 14 October . Assigned to assist in another of the important Hydrographic Office expeditions in the Caribbean , she departed Norfolk on 7 November . During the next few months she contributed to safe navigation in the West Indies in surveys that led to precise charts . She returned to Washington with the scientific team on 14 June , decommissioning on 26 June . Mediterranean , 1876 - 1879 . " Gettysburg " recommissioned on 20 September 1876 , for special duty to the Mediterranean , where she was to obtain navigational information about the coasts and islands of the area . " Gettysburg " departed Norfolk on 17 October for Europe . During the next two years , she visited nearly every port in the Mediterranean , taking soundings and making observations on the southern coast of France , the entire coastline of Italy , and the Adriatic Islands . " Gettysburg " continued to the coast of Turkey , and from there made soundings on the coast of Egypt and other North African points , Sicily and Sardinia . On 1 October 1878 , while the ship was off the coast of Algeria , Landsman Walter Elmore rescued a fellow sailor from drowning , for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor . While visiting Genoa on 22 April 1879 , " Gettysburg " rescued the crew of a small vessel which had run upon the rocks outside the breakwater . Decommissioning and fate . Her iron plates corroded from years of almost uninterrupted service and her machinery weakened , " Gettysburg " was decommissioned on 6 May and sold two days later .