USS Alert ( 1861 ) USS " Alert " ( 1861 ) was a steamship named " A . C . Powell " purchased by the Union Navy during the first year of the American Civil War . " A . C . Powell " — later renamed " Alert " , and still later renamed " Watch " — served primarily as a tugboat , but at times she performed duty as a dispatch boat , ship ’ s tender , and even as a gunboat despite the fact that she had on board only a howitzer instead of a cannon or rifle . Built in New York in 1861 . " Alert " — a screw tugboat built in 1861 at Syracuse , New York . , under the name " A . C . Powell " — was purchased at New York City by the Navy on 3 October 1861 . Civil War service . " A . C . Powell " early blockade support . Since this small tug ' s logs prior to 27 January 1865 have been lost , there are several significant gaps in our knowledge of her career . All we know of " A . C . Powell " s service until early in the summer of 1862 is that she was operating in the sounds of North Carolina on 13 March 1862 . We next hear of her on 30 June , when she was detached from the Potomac River Flotilla for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . The reassignment was prompted by Confederate General Robert E . Lee ' s success in the Seven Days Campaign which turned back General George McClellan ' s Union Army before Richmond , Virginia , and forced it to seek safety on the banks of the James River under the protection of Federal gunboats . " A . C . Powell " — then under the command of Acting Master Henry H . Foster — was one of several ships of the Union Navy sent to the James to assure Union control of that indispensable waterway . " A . C . Powell " renamed USS " Alert " . While the tug was operating on that river , she was renamed " Alert " . Late in 1861 , President Abraham Lincoln decided to withdraw the Army of the Potomac from the peninsula formed by the James and York Rivers and return it to the vicinity of Washington , D . C . to protect the Union capital which was threatened by Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . U . S . Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles called " Alert " back to the Potomac River to strengthen the forces which were to meet Lee , but the steamer was undergoing repairs at Newport News , Virginia , and was unable to get underway until after Union soldiers had stopped Lee at Antietam Creek . With Lee ' s decision to retire into Virginia , the need for " Alert " in the Potomac disappeared , and she remained in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . Service on the James River . During most of the remainder of her service , the tug acted as a dispatch and picket boat on the James River . She also made occasional runs to the sounds of North Carolina with messages . During these operations , Confederate forces in the waters she frequented were constantly endeavoring to seize Union warships or to destroy them by guile . For instance , on 12 November 1862 , Captain Thomas Turner , the senior Union naval officer in the Hampton Roads - Norfolk area , warned " Alert " that The admonition for " . . . the officers and men to be constantly on the watch . . . " was especially important since " Alert " often served as tender to , the flag steamer of Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee who commanded the Union squadron . Union warships on the James also cooperated with Army forces . In mid January 1863 , Major General John Adams Dix notified Admiral Lee that there were " . . . indications of activity on the part of the enemy . . . " in the Dismal Swamp - Suffolk area . Since a major Confederate movement in that vicinity could jeopardize the entire Union hold on the south bank of the James , Admiral Lee ordered " Alert " and her sister warship s to ready themselves to help turn back the Southern thrust should it come . Nansemond River expedition . Almost three months passed before that particular threat materialized . Early in April , General Lee detached Lieutenant General James Longstreet ' s corps from the Army of Northern Virginia to forage for supplies . Longstreet , apparently hoping to improve the South ' s strategic position while finding food for General Lee ' s soldiers , headed for Suffolk . When the Union Army called on the Navy for help , Admiral Lee ordered Lieutenant William B . Gushing to lead a group of gunboats up the Nansemond River — a tributary of the James — to assist Major General John J . Peck ' s troops as they tried to stop Longstreet ' s advance . " Alert " ascended the Nansemond with Gushing on 12 April , and for the next three weeks participated in almost daily duels with Confederate shore batteries . Because of her light draft , she moved above the bar of the river into the narrower , shallower , and more dangerous part of the stream near Suffolk where the fighting was fiercest . The afternoon of the next day , her rudder was severely damaged , requiring her to return briefly to Norfolk to have it replaced . The repair work was completed on the afternoon of the 16th , and the tug returned to the Nansemond and fought there through the end of the month . Her vigorous fight and that of her sister ships prevented the Southern forces from dislodging Major General Peck ' s troops from their defensive works and finally prompted Longstreet to withdraw — a movement hastened by a message from General Lee , who was about to engage the Union Army at Chancellorsville . Attempt at conversion to torpedo boat . On 31 August 1863 , the tug caught fire while moored in the Norfolk Navy Yard and sank . She was soon raised , and by October had returned to duty . In January 1864 , work to fit her with a torpedo apparatus began , but the experiment proved to be unsuccessful . As a result , the tug returned to duty in the James in May . Renamed USS " Watch " . On 2 February 1865 , " Alert " was renamed " Watch " . Her work on the James reached its climax early in April when she participated in the naval expedition to Richmond , which took President Lincoln to the former Confederate capital . Soon thereafter , she left that river and raced to the Potomac River , presumably to try to cut off the escape of the assassin , John Wilkes Booth , who had shot the President . Post - war decommissioning and subsequent career . Following the collapse of the Confederacy , " Watch " was decommissioned at the Washington Navy Yard on 26 May . She was sold at auction there to Robert Lear on 5 July . Redocumented as " Watch " on 2 August , she served as a merchant tug until abandoned in 1886 .