CSS Teaser CSS " Teaser had been the aging Georgetown , D . C . tugboat " York River " until the beginning of the American Civil War , when she was taken into the Confederate States Navy and took part in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads . Later , she was captured by the United States Navy and became the first USS " Teaser . CSS " Teaser " . " Teaser " was built at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Purchased at Richmond , Virginia by the State of Virginia in 1861 , she was assigned to the naval forces in the James River with Lieutenant James Henry Rochelle , Virginia State Navy , in command . Upon the secession of Virginia , " Teaser " became a part of the Confederate States Navy and continued to operate in Virginia waters . With Lieutenant William A . Webb , CSN , in command , she took an active part in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8 – March 9 , 1862 , acting as tender to CSS " Virginia " . She received the thanks of the Congress of the Confederate States for this action . " Teaser " was a pioneer " aircraft carrier " , serving as a base for an observation hot air balloon ; she also became a pioneer minelayer when ordered on June 17 , 1862 , to assist General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . Under Lieutenant Hunter Davidson , CSN , she was used by the Confederate Naval Submarine Battery Service to plant and service " torpedoes " ( mines ) in the James River . While engaging at Haxall ' s on the James on July 4 , 1862 , a Union shell blew up " Teaser " ' s boiler and forced her crew to abandon ship . When seized by " Maratanza " , " Teaser " was carrying on board a balloon for aerial reconnaissance of Union positions at City Point and Harrison ' s Landing . Commanders . The commanders of the CSS " Teaser " were : USS " Teaser " . Later that summer , " Teaser " was taken into the United States Navy and was assigned to the Potomac Flotilla . With the exception of three brief deployments elsewhere , USS " Teaser " plied the waters of the Potomac River from Alexandria , Virginia , south to Point Lookout , Maryland to enforce the blockade by interdicting a thriving trade in contraband between the Maryland and Virginia shores . On September 22 , she captured schooner " Southerner " in the Coan River . On October 19 , while operating in the vicinity of Piney Point in St . Mary ' s County , Maryland , she captured two smuggler s and their boat as they were nearing the exit of Herring Creek and preparing to cross the river to Virginia . On November 2 , near the mouth of the Rappahannock River , the tug surprised three men attempting to violate the blockade in a canoe . " Teaser " took them prisoner and turned their contraband over to pro - Union Virginians living on Gwynn ' s Island . Four days later in Chesapeake Bay , " Teaser " took the cargo - less sloop " Grapeshot " and captured her three - man crew . By December 1862 , she had moved to the Rappahannock River with other units of the Potomac Flotilla to support General Ambrose Burnside ' s thrust toward Richmond . On December 10 , she exchanged shots with a Confederate battery located on the southern shore of the river about three miles below Port Royal , Virginia . After Burnside ' s bloody rebuff at Fredericksburg , Virginia on December 13 , " Teaser " and her colleagues returned to their anti - smuggling patrol along the Potomac . " Teaser " joined to make March 1863 an active month . On March 24 , the two ships sent a boat expedition to reconnoiter Pope ' s Creek , Virginia . The landing party found two boats used for smuggling and collected information from Union sympathizers in the area . Almost a week later , on the night of March 30 — March 31 , they dispatched a three - boat party to Monroe ' s Creek , Virginia . The previous day , a Federal cavalry detachment had surprised a smuggler in the area ; and , though the troops captured his goods , the man himself escaped . Boats from " Teaser " and " Primrose " succeeded where the Union horsemen had failed , and they gathered some intelligence on other contrabanders as well . In April 1863 , " Teaser " left the Potomac for duty with Acting Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee ' s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Hampton Roads . On April 17 , she joined and in an expedition up the Nansemond River west of Norfolk , Virginia . However , she ran aground , damaged her machinery , and had to retire from the venture . By mid - summer , " Teaser " was back in action on the Potomac . On the night of July 27 , she captured two smugglers with a boatload of tobacco in the mouth of the Mattawoman Creek just south of Indian Head , Maryland . She destroyed the boat and sent the prisoners and contraband north to the Washington Navy Yard . During the night of October 7 , " Teaser " and another flotilla ship ( extant records do not identify her companion ) noticed signalling between Mathias Point , Virginia , and the Maryland shore . The two ships shelled the woods at Mathias Point , but took no action against the signallers on the Maryland shore other than to urge upon the United States Army ' s district provost marshal the necessity of constant vigilance . On January 5 , 1864 , " Teaser " and landed a force of men at Nomini , Virginia to investigate a rumor that the Southerners had hidden a large lighter and a skiff capable of boating 80 men there . The force , commanded by " Teaser ' s " commanding officer , Acting Ensign Sheridan , found both boats , destroyed the lighter , and captured the skiff . During the landing , Confederate soldiers appeared on the heights above Nomini , but the gunboats dampened their curiosity with some well - placed cannon shots . In April , " Teaser " , " Yankee " , , , and accompanied an Army expedition to Machodoc Creek , Virginia . At 5 : 00 A . M . on April 13 , the five ships cleared the St . Mary ' s River in company with the Army ' s steamer USAT " Long Branch " with a battalion of soldiers under the command of General Edward W . Hinks . " Long Branch " landed her troops at about 8 : 00 A . M . while the five ships covered the operation . A contingent of Confederate cavalry appeared on the southern bank of the Machodoc , but retired when " Teaser " and " Anacostia " sent four armed boat crews ashore . The landing party netted a prisoner , probably a smuggler , and a large quantity of tobacco . By April 14 , General Hinks ' troops reembarked in " Long Branch " and headed for Point Lookout . " Anacostia " accompanied the Army steamer while the other four warships investigated Currioman Bay and Nomini . They returned to St . Mary ' s , Virginia that afternoon to resume patrols . During the summer of 1864 , " Teaser " was called upon to leave the Potomac once more . On this occasion , the Union forces needed her guns to help defend strategic bridges across the rivers at the head of Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore , Maryland , against Lieutenant General Jubal A . Early ' s raiders . On July 10 , she departed the lower Potomac , rounded Point Lookout , and headed up the Chesapeake Bay . That night , she had to put into the Patuxent River because of heavy winds and leaks in her hull . Before dawn the following morning , she continued up the bay . During the forenoon , the leaks became progressively worse and , by the time she arrived off Annapolis , Maryland , she had to remove her exhaust pipe for temporary repairs . Early that evening , " Teaser " reached Baltimore where she put in for additional repairs . The gunboat did not reach her destination , the bridge over the Gunpowder River , until late on July 12 . She was too late ; the bridge had already been burned . She returned to Baltimore immediately to report on the bridge and to pick up arms and provisions for the vessels stationed in the Gunpowder River . When she arrived back at the bridge , she found orders to return to the Potomac awaiting her . " Teaser " departed the northern reaches of the Chesapeake and reported back to the Potomac Flotilla at St . Inigoes , Virginia on the St . Mary ' s River in late afternoon on April 14 . For the remainder of the war , " Teaser " and her flotilla - mates plied the Potomac and contributed to the gradual economic strangulation which brought the South to its knees by April 1865 . Less than two months after General Robert E . Lee ' s surrender at Appomattox , Virginia , " Teaser " was decommissioned at the Washington Navy Yard on June 2 . Sold at public auction at Washington to Mr . J . Bigler on June 25 , the tug was re - documented as " York River " on July 2 , 1865 , and she served commercially until 1878 .