USS Restless ( 1861 ) USS " Restless " ( 1861 ) was a barque acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . She was used as a gunboat by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries . Purchased at New York City in 1861 . " Restless " was purchased from Everett and Hawley at New York City on 26 August 1861 and commissioned the following December , Acting Volunteer Lt . Edward Conroy in command . Civil War service . Operating with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron . Ordered south upon commissioning , " Restless " sailed to Norfolk , Virginia , took on supplies for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , and toward the end of January 1862 arrived at Port Royal , South Carolina . Assigned to the blockade force off Charleston , South Carolina , she took up station off Bull ' s Bay on 4 February . On the 11th , two escaped slaves provided information on the ships carrying food into Charleston , their use of inland water routes , and conditions in the blockaded city . Two days later , " Restless " , following that information , discovered three vessels within the shoals . On the 14th , armed boats from " Restless " captured and destroyed the sloop " Edisto " and the schooners " Wandoo " , " Elizabeth " , and " Theodore Stony " . All vessels had been carrying rice . At the end of March , " Restless " put into Port Royal for provisioning . By then she had intercepted five more blockade runners ; two schooners were kept as prizes ; one sloop and two schooners were destroyed . Operations in the Charleston area . Ordered back to the Charleston area on 15 April , she took up station between Rattlesnake Shoal and Caper ' s Island . On 2 May she captured the schooner " Flash " and sent her to New York for adjudication . On the 11th she returned to Bull ' s Bay . Between then and the end of October , " Restless " captured one steamer , " Scotia " , two sloops , and a large canoe ; and assisted in intercepting two other steamers and a schooner . In November and December , inland expeditions were stepped up . On 5 November , a shore party sent to Palmetto Point intercepted a mail shipment bound for Charleston which provided further intelligence for the campaign against blockade runners . In December , shore parties burned the salt works on Harbor Creek and destroyed Confederate batteries and magazines on Bull ' s Island . In late January 1863 , after 13 months of duty , " Restless " sailed north for docking and repairs . By mid - June , however , she had returned to blockade duty . Reassigned to the Eastern Gulf Blockade . Assigned to the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron , she operated off the coast of western Florida for the remainder of the war . Initially stationed at St . George ' s Sound , she captured a schooner and a sloop in Peace Creek , Charlotte Harbor in early July and took the schooner " Erniti " 60 miles off Tampa Bay on 19 August . In October she relieved in St . Andrew ' s Sound and remained on duty there until November 1864 . During that time she seized several vessels and destroyed salt works which supplied Confederate forces in U . S . state of Georgia . In mid - November , the bark sailed to Key West , Florida , for repairs ; then , in January 1865 , took up station again in Charlotte Harbor . At the end of March , she shifted to St . Joseph ' s Bay where she remained until the end of the war . End - of - war operations and final decommissioning . Toward the latter part of June 1865 , " Restless " , carrying surplus ordnance supplies , rounded the Florida peninsula and sailed north . She was sold at auction in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , on 21 September the same year .