USS Wilderness ( 1864 ) USS " Wilderness was a wooden - hulled , side - wheel steamship in the United States Navy during the American Civil War . After the war , she served as a revenue cutter . In 1873 , she was renamed John A . Dix " for former Secretary of the Treasury John Adams Dix . Service in the US Civil War . " Wilderness " ' was built as " B . N . Creary " — sometimes spelled " B . N . Crary " — in 1864 at Brooklyn , New York . Acquired by the Union Navy at New York City on 30 May 1864 and simultaneously renamed " Wilderness " , she fitted out at the New York Navy Yard and was commissioned on 20 July 1864 . After arriving at Hampton Roads shortly thereafter , " Wilderness " was assigned immediately to the 2nd Division of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . She operated between Hampton Roads and various points along the James River through the end of August . While she performed a variety of duties during that time , she operated primarily as a supply ship . She also served as a transport and dispatch vessel when the occasion demanded . On the average , she apparently made two trips upriver from Hampton Roads per week , delivering fresh vegetables and provisions to the crews of naval vessels operating up the James River and to the crews of the lighthouses situated along that waterway . On 15 July 1864 , when Confederate guns located near Malvern Hill fired on Union ships , " Wilderness " made a night run down the James with casualties embarked , bound for the hospital at Norfolk , Virginia . On the 27th of that month , " Wilderness " was compelled by the heavy movement of Union troops across two pontoon bridges spanning the James to remain between them . While thus immobile , the side - wheeler observed the gunboats and shelling Confederate positions across nearby Four Mile Creek . On 25 August , Acting Rear Admiral S . P . Lee , commanding the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , reported to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that " to promote the efficiency of the blockade of the bars " ( off the North Carolina coast ) he had directed Captain Melancton Smith , the commander of naval forces on the James , " to have the " Wilderness " prepared at once for service on the blockade of Wilmington . " By 1 September , when Admiral Lee reported the composition of his squadron , he listed " Wilderness " as a " supply steam ; ordered to fit out as gunboat and join ( the ) blockade . " By late October , " Wilderness " had been armed with a battery of four 24 - pounders , enabling her to be classed as a gunboat . On 28 October , Rear Admiral David D . Porter , the new commanding officer of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , issued orders to Acting Master Henry Arey , commanding the newly converted sidewheeler , to " proceed and report to the senior officer off Eastern Bar ( Cape Fear River ) for duty on the blockade as a chaser . " " Wilderness " went into action almost immediately . At 19 : 05 on the evening of 31 October , while patrolling off New Inlet , North Carolina , she spotted a strange vessel bearing south by west , heading over the bar . , on station nearby , also saw the ship and came about . " Wilderness " , steaming at top speed and firing as she came , ultimately overhauled the strange vessel and captured her at 19 : 45 . The prize turned out to be the British blockade - runner " Annie " and was described by Arey as " . . . a fine steamer , with two propellers , one smokestack and . . . schooner - rigged . " Sailors from " Wilderness " boarded the ship , finding her cargo to consist of 540 bales of cotton , 30 tons of pressed tobacco , and 14 casks of " spirits of turpentine . " " Niphon " took on board the passengers and crew of the runner while " Wilderness " took charge of the prize . During the transfer of prisoners , Confederate guns at neaby Fort Fisher opened fire on the Union vessels . One shell struck " Wilderness " , passing through her hurricane deck on the starboard side and going through a water tank at the port gangway , where it exploded , damaging the rim of the gunboat ' s port wheel . Repaired at Beaufort , North Carolina , when the ship put into that port for coal , " Wilderness " resumed blockade duties off Wilmington , North Carolina soon thereafter . Shortly before the Union assault on Fort Fisher , the key Confederate stronghold guarding the approaches to the seaport of Wilmington , a daring plan to reduce some of the defenses by using an explosive - laden ship was put into motion . The sidewheel steamer was stripped and filled with explosives ; manned by a volunteer crew commanded by Commander Alexander C . Rhind ; and towed into position , first by and later by " Wilderness " , off the fort . The latter took up the tow on 18 December , but heavy weather delayed the start of the entire operation . In the final attempt , made on 23 December , " Wilderness " — manned by Acting Master Arey , four officers and " enough men to handle the vessel " — took " Louisiana " in close to the walls of Fort Fisher . Rhind and his men lit the fuses , kindled a fire aft , and then escaped in small boats to " Wilderness " . The fuses set by Rhind failed to detonate the explosives , but the fire aft did . " Louisiana " blew up as planned , but other than to send out a heavy shock wave , had little effect . At dawn the next day , Christmas Eve , the first assault on Fort Fisher began . However , as Admiral Porter subsequently wrote , " I was in hopes I should have been able to present to the nation Fort Fisher and surrounding works as a Christmas offering , but I am sorry to say it has not been taken yet . " The expedition failed dismally . During the first attempt to reduce and invest the Confederate stronghold , on 24 and 25 December 1864 , " Wilderness " lay in reserve offshore , in the first division . Through much of the action , " Wilderness " served as tender to the flagship and spotted her fall of shot . On the 25th , the side - wheeler took on board the bodies of the sailors who had been killed on and and also received the wounded from those ships . After transferring these casualties to Fort Jackson , " Wilderness " returned to Beaufort , where she took two coal schooners in tow and pulled them to Wilmington , getting underway on the 28th as Union forces were preparing to make a second attempt to take Fort Fisher . Delivering her tows soon thereafter , the side - wheel steamer supported the landings against the Confederate stronghold on 13 January 1865 , taking on board a draft of troops from the transport " Atlantic " . She took the troops to within 500 yards of shore and , while anchored there , transferred the men to boats for the final run to shore . The following day , " Wilderness " delivered mail among the fleet and took on ammunition ; later , she delivered cargo to . Subsequently , " Wilderness " took part in the occupation of former Confederate works at Smithville , North Carolina , on 19 January , Acting Master Arey and a boat crew from the ship participating directly in the operation . " Wilderness " remained in the vicinity of the mouth of the Cape Fear River into February and then returned to her former operating area , the James River . Admiral Porter ordered " Wilderness " up the Chickahominy River to try to communicate with General Philip Sheridan . Collaterally , the ship was to gain all the information she could learn about the river itself and Southern forces in the area before returning to Aiken ' s Landing with any dispatches which needed to be delivered . Subsequently , the side - wheeler received orders to proceed without delay to New Berne , North Carolina , to cooperate with Army forces of General Forrest Sherman in the movement up the Chowan River toward Winton , North Carolina . Arriving on 2 April with dispatches from Admiral Porter , " Wilderness " resumed her operations in the sounds of North Carolina , performing general utility duties for the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron through the end of the Civil War . Revenue cutter . Decommissioned on 10 June 1865 , " Wilderness " was acquired by the Treasury Department at the Boston Navy Yard on 6 September 1865 and sailed for Baltimore , Maryland , on the 17th . There , the side - wheeler was fitted put for her new duties as a revenue cutter and , following repairs and alterations , was ordered to Florida waters on 28 November . Reaching Key West on 8 December , " Wilderness " operated out of that port for a year , before she shifted up the east coast to Charleston , South Carolina , on 14 December 1866 for repairs . " Wilderness " subsequently operated in the Gulf of Mexico , ranging from New Orleans to Veracruz , Mexico . She apparently operated out of New Orleans , Louisiana , in the gulf , through the summer of 1872 . Renamed " John A . Dix " . Ordered to New York for repairs on 2 September 1872 , " Wilderness " reached New York City on the 19th . Records indicate that the ship was to be dismantled . The orders , dated 3 January 1873 , are recorded as " carried into effect , 11 January . " Now , whether or not this means that the name was retained and an entirely new ship was built is not entirely clear . In any event , she is listed as being ordered to New Orleans for duty on 3 July . Sailing on the 7th , she arrived at her new duty station on the 19th . During the ship ' s period in a " limbo " of sorts , she was renamed John A . Dix on 11 June 1873 . She apparently then operated in the Gulf of Mexico , out of New Orleans , through the autumn of 1879 , when she was temporarily stationed at Mobile , Alabama . The cutter operated in the Florida Keys in the spring of 1880 and into the early 1880s . Ordered to New York City for replacement of her boilers in the autumn of 1883 , she arrived there on 30 October . Ordered back to Florida waters upon completion of those repairs on 1 February 1884 , she departed New York City on 13 March and arrived at Key West nine days later . Resuming operations in the Florida Keys , " John A . Dix " cruised the Gulf of Mexico between Florida and Texas , from the Mississippi River to the Rio Grande , through the end of the 1880s . Ordered to New Orleans , on 28 March 1891 , " John A . Dix " arrived there on 7 April . Placed out of commission soon thereafter , the erstwhile side - wheel gunboat was sold on 18 May 1891 at Algiers , Louisiana .