USS South Carolina ( 1860 ) USS " South Carolina " ( 1860 ) was a steamer used by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . She was used by the Navy as a gunboat to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries . Post - war she was converted into a cargo ship prior to being decommissioned . Built in Boston in 1860 . " South Carolina " , a screw steamer built at Boston , Massachusetts , in 1860 , was purchased by the Navy at Boston on 3 May 1861 and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 22 May 1861 , Capt . James Alden in command . Civil War operations . Assigned to the Gulf Blockading Squadron . The steamer departed Boston on 24 May 1861 and carried ordnance and ammunition to Pensacola , Florida . She joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron at Berwick Bay , Louisiana , on 24 June 1861 and then took station off Galveston , Texas . On 4 July , she celebrated Independence Day there by capturing six small schooners . She took two more the next day and one each on the 6th and 7th . " South Carolina " engaged Confederate batteries at Galveston on 3 August . On 11 September , she made a prize of Galveston steamer " Anna Taylor " , laden with coffee and masquerading as the Tampico ship , " Solodad Cos " . She captured schooners " Ezilda " and " Joseph H . Toone " off Southwest Pass on 4 October ; and , on the 16th , took " Edward Barnard " , after that British schooner had run the blockade out of Mobile , Alabama , with 600 barrels of turpentine . On the 17th of October , she joined the in pursuit of the CSS Ivy up the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi . She fired on the Ivy , and one other Confederate steamer , but both escaped . Sloop " Florida " fell prey to the vigilant blockader on 11 December . On 19 February 1862 , " South Carolina " and chased steamer " Magnolia " in the Gulf of Mexico after the steamer had slipped away from the Confederate coast carrying a large cargo of cotton . " Magnolia ' s " crew exploded one of her boilers , set her afire , and attempted to escape ; but " South Carolina " captured the Southerner ' s boats , boarded the flaming steamer , and put out the fire . In March , " South Carolina " received orders to return to Boston where she was decommissioned on 8 April for badly needed repairs . Repaired and recommissioned , South Carolina sails down the east coast . Recommissioned on 16 June , the steamer was reassigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron ; departed Boston four days later ; and joined the blockade off Charleston , South Carolina , on the 16th . She served in that squadron until the closing weeks of the Civil War . " South Carolina " destroyed abandoned schooner " Patriot " aground near Mosquito Inlet , Florida , on 27 August ; and captured schooner " Nellie " off Port Royal , South Carolina , on 27 March 1863 . Returned to Philadelphia , and converted into a storeship . Departing Charleston on 9 March 1865 , " South Carolina " entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the 15th and was decommissioned there on the 25th to be fitted out as a store ship . Recommissioned on 17 June , the ship sailed on 4 July to carry stores to ships at Port Royal , Key West , and Pensacola , Florida . She returned to Philadelphia on the last day of July and , during the next year , made four more similar logistic cruises . Post - war decommissioning and sale . After returning to New York from her last voyage on 20 July 1866 , " South Carolina " was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 17 August 1866 and was sold at public auction at New York on 5 October 1866 . Redocumented " Juniata " on 24 December 1866 , the former blockader remained long in merchant service . She was reduced to a schooner barge on 8 April 1893 and soon after vanished from maritime records .