USS Grand Gulf ( 1863 ) USS " Grand Gulf " ( 1863 ) was a screw steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . She was effective in performing blockade duty , and captured a number of Confederate blockade runner s . " Grand Gulf " was purchased in New York as " Onward " 14 September 1863 from her builders , Cornelius and Richard Poillon ; and commissioned 28 September 1863 , Comdr . George Ransom in command . Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockade . " Grand Gulf " stood to sea from New York on 11 October and 9 days later joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Wilmington , North Carolina . Her two exits to the sea at Beaufort and the Cape Fear River made Wilmington one of the most important and most difficult to blockade of all Confederate ports . She remained on blockade duty there , with intervals for repair at the New York and Norfolk Navy Yard s , until 4 October 1864 . Capturing blockade runners and their valuable cargoes . On 21 November 1863 , assisted by Army Transport " Fulton " , " Grand Gulf " took blockade runner " Banshee " with a general cargo of contraband from Nassau . Off the Carolina coast , " Grand Gulf " , 6 March 1864 , captured the British steamer " Mary Ann " trying to run the blockade with a cargo of cotton and tobacco ; seizing the cargo and 82 passengers and crew members , " Grand Gulf " put a prize crew on the steamer and sent her to Boston , Massachusetts . A second British ship , " Young Republic " , fell captive to " Grand Gulf " after a wild chase 6 May 1864 , with both ships steaming at full speed and the blockade runner throwing overboard bale after bale of precious cotton and even the anchor chain in a futile attempt to lighten ship . " Grand Gulf " garnered some 253 bales of cotton as well as 54 prisoners from this prize . Two weeks later , Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee wrote Ransom congratulating him on taking the prize ; " Every capture made by blockaders deprives the enemy of so much of the ' sinews of war , ' and is equal to the taking of two supply trains from the rebel Army . " Searching for Confederate raider " Tallahassee " . Returning to New York 4 August 1864 , she was ordered out in search of the Confederate raider CSS Tallahassee , reported in Long Island Sound . However , 17 August she gave over the search to tow into port demasted brig " Billow " , and claim her as a prize . " Billow " had been captured by " Tallahassee " ; scuttled but did not sink . Grand Gulf left New York 23 September to convoy California steamer " Ocean Queen " to Aspinwall ( now Colon ) , Panama , arriving there 3 October and returning to New York 16 October . From 24 October to 16 November she and " Ocean Queen " repeated the voyage . One day from New York on the outward passage , " Grand Gulf " , herself leaking badly , took into tow sinking British bark " Linden " . She then put into New York Navy Yard for extensive repairs . Reassigned to the West Gulf Blockade . With the ironclad in tow , " Grand Gulf " put to sea 8 March 1865 ; arriving at Hampton Roads 12 March , she left " Casco " there and 17 March sailed to join the West Gulf Blockading Fleet off Galveston , Texas . She reached Galveston 4 April and remained on blockade duty until 25 June , when she steamed up the Mississippi River to New Orleans , Louisiana . There she served as a prison ship and site for courts - martial until 18 October , when she cleared New Orleans for New York , New York . Decommissioning . Arriving in New York 2 November , " Grand Gulf " decommissioned 10 November and was sold 30 November to C . Comstock & Co . She was later resold to William F . Feld & Co . of Boston , Massachusetts ; renamed " General Grant " ; and put in service in their Merchants of Boston SS . Co . operating between Boston and New Orleans . She burned and sank at a wharf in New Orleans 19 April 1869 .