USS Westfield ( 1861 ) USS " Westfield " was a sidewheel steam ferryboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War . " Westfield " was purchased by the Navy from Cornelius Vanderbilt on 22 November 1861 ; outfitted at Jacob Aaron Westervelt s shipyard in New York ; and commissioned in January 1862 , Commander William B . Renshaw in command . Service history . " Westfield " departed New York on 22 February 1862 , bound for Key West , Florida , to join Comdr . David Dixon Porter ' s Mortar Flotilla . That unit , however , departed Key West on 3 March before " Westfield ' s " arrival . She , therefore , did not join the flotilla until her arrival at the Passes of the Mississippi River on 18 March . For the next three weeks , she assisted and in their efforts to cross the bar at Pass an Outre and enter the Mississippi River . That mission succeeded finally on 8 April , and " Westfield " began duty covering a coastal survey party developing more precise maps of the lower Mississippi for the assault on Forts Jackson and St . Philip . On 13 April , she received orders to proceed upriver and engage two Confederate gunboat s . After two shots from her Parrott rifle , the two Southern ships retired to the protection of the guns of Fort Jackson where they joined six other Confederate gunboats . Undaunted , " Westfield " closed range and opened fire once more . That brief cannonade broke the shaft of and damaged her so severely that her crew later had to abandon and sink her . Between 14 April and 24 April , she supported Porter ' s Mortar Flotilla during the bombardment of the two Confederate forts in preparation for Flag Officer David Farragut ' s run between them to New Orleans , Louisiana . That event occurred on the 24th , but " Westfield " did not participate directly . Rather , she remained with the mortar boats and continued to support them and supply ammunition . Early in the summer of 1862 , " Westfield " moved upriver with the Mortar Flotilla — to a point just below Vicksburg , Mississippi . There she resumed her duties in support of the mortars during the first campaign against the Confederate stronghold . Late in July and early in August , the ship made her way back down the Mississippi via Baton Rouge and New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico . She then took up duty blockading the coast of Texas as a unit of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron . On 4 October , " Westfield " led a unit composed of , , , and in a successful assault on the city of Galveston , Texas , which capitulated formally on the 9th . She remained at Galveston until 1 January 1863 when , during the successful Confederate recapture of the city , she was attacked by two Southern warships . She was blown up to forestall her almost certain capture . Her commanding officer and a boat crew died in the explosion . As of 2007 , no other ship in the United States Navy has been named " Westfield . " On 18 November 2009 the U . S . Army Corps of Engineers began several weeks of recovery operations to retrieve artifacts . Items recovered are destined for study at the Conservation Research Lab at Texas A & M University . " Westfield ' s " largest cannon , the 9 - inch Dahlgren , was recovered along with five cannonballs from a depth of 47 ft near the merge point of the Texas City Ship Channel and the Houston Ship Channel . The Dahlgren cannon is said to be the centerpiece of the recovered artifacts , which were brought to College Station and will be kept at the Conservation Research Lab on Texas A & M ' s Riverside Campus . The cannon will be placed in an electrolysis bath for up to two years to remove chlorides and preserve the metal , according to Donny Hamilton , head of the Texas A & M anthropology department . Once the archaeology project completes , the US Army Corps of Engineers begins a $ 71 million dredging effort of the waterway . References .