USS Acacia ( 1863 ) USS " Acacia " was a steam - powered tugboat in the service of the United States Navy during the American Civil War , named after the Acacia tree . She was launched as " Vicksburg " sometime in September 1863 , purchased and renamed by the Navy at Boston , Massachusetts on 28 October 1863 , and commissioned in the Boston Navy Yard on 8 December 1863 with Acting Master John D . Childs in command . " Chesapeake " . While the new tug was preparing for service in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , 17 Confederate agents disguised as passengers seized " Chesapeake " off Cape Cod , Massachusetts on 7 December 1863 as that packet was steaming from New York City to Portland , Maine . The liner ' s captors took her to Saint John , New Brunswick , where , the next day , they landed the prize ' s bonafide passengers , her former captain , and most of her crew . Word of the takeover reached Portland on the morning of 9 December and quickly spread from there . The news prompted Federal officials at northern ports along the coast to speedy action . At 16 : 00 that afternoon , " Acacia " sailed in search of the " Chesapeake " . " En route " , however , she began taking on water so fast that she soon found herself " in a sinking condition " and was forced to seek haven at Portland . On the morning of 11 December , Childs wired from there back to Boston , " Through the help of the fire department the " Acacia " is now alongside a wharf , where she can not sink . " While " Acacia " was undergoing repairs at Portland , other Union ships continued to hunt for " Chesapeake " . On 17 December , the recently captured blockade runner " Ella and Annie " — which had been hastily manned , armed , and sent to sea — finally caught up with her at Sambro , Nova Scotia . Shortly thereafter , the Northern gunboat arrived on the scene ; and her commanding officer prevented " Ella and Annie " from taking the recaptured tug back to Boston , lest such action seriously undermine relations between the United States and the British Empire . Instead , to observe diplomatic niceties , he escorted " Chesapeake " to Halifax where he asked Canadian courts to restore her to her owner . The following morning , the repaired " Acacia " arrived at Halifax with witnesses who could identify and testify against the Southern sailors . South Atlantic . Her work along the Canadian coast completed , " Acacia " returned to Boston and resumed her preparation for blockade duty along the coast of the Carolinas . When ready , she proceeded south via Hampton Roads , Virginia , and arrived off Morris Island , South Carolina on the evening of 6 January 1864 . The tug served in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for the remainder of the war , spending most of her time near Breach Inlet in the line of Union warships outside Charleston Bar . From time to time during her deployment , she had brushes with blockade runners , occasionally forcing the escaping ships to turn back into port and compelling vessels attempting to enter back out to sea . Ironically , her greatest success came on the morning of 23 December , not when she was on her blockade station , but while she was steaming from Charleston bar to Georgetown , South Carolina , with provisions for screw sloop . As she was passing Cape Romain Shoal , a lookout in the masthead reported two white smokestacks close inshore . " Acacia " altered course and , " on closing in toward the bar , discovered . . . a sidewheel steamer of perhaps . No colors could be seen . " The stranger ' s decks were crowded with men preparing to abandon her . " Acacia " continued " in as near as the depth of water would admit and fired a shell over her . " She then lowered her boats , armed them for boarding , and fired another shot over them as they approached the stranded ship . The stranded steamer then sent up white flags as her own boats began pulling toward the mouth of Alligator Creek where they escaped . Not a soul remained on board the blockade runner when the Union sailors reached her shortly past noon . Upon boarding the prize , they learned that she was " Julia " , a fast , shallow - draft , iron - hulled vessel built in 1863 at Renfrew , Scotland — apparently for the express purpose of violating the Federal blockade . " Her engine ' s had been purposely disabled . . . " and she was hard aground . The almost heroic efforts of the boarding party managed to get " Julia " afloat and underway on her own power shortly after daylight on the following morning , and she was ultimately sent to Key West where she was condemned by the prize court . Post - war . After the end of the Civil War , " Acacia " sailed for Philadelphia on 24 April 1865 . She was decommissioned in the navy yard at that port on 12 May and sold at public auction there . Redocumented as SS " Wabash " on 13 October , she served as a merchantman until abandoned in 1881 .