USS Mohican ( 1859 ) The first USS " Mohican " was a steam sloop of war in the United States Navy during the American Civil War . She was named for the Mohican tribe . " Mohican " was laid down by Portsmouth Navy Yard , Kittery , Maine , in August 1858 ; launched on 15 February 1859 ; and commissioned on 29 November 1859 , Commander Sylvanus William Godon in command . Pre - Civil War . African Squadron , 1859 - 1861 . Assigned to the African Squadron , " Mohican " departed Portsmouth on 19 January 1860 for the South Atlantic and for the next year and one - half cruised on patrol against pirates and slavers off the coasts of Africa and at times Brazil . On 8 August , the sloop captured the slaver " Erie " — commanded by Nathaniel Gordon — off the Congo and forced that ship to unload its captive cargo at Monrovia , Liberia . She remained on station until sailing for home on 13 August 1861 . Civil War . Battle of Port Royal , 1861 . Following her arrival at Boston , Massachusetts on 27 September , she sailed to join Flag Officer Samuel Du Pont ' s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Sandy Hook , New Jersey . Departing Norfolk , Virginia on 29 October for Port Royal , South Carolina , as part of the largest U . S . naval squadron assembled to that time , the sloop steamed in the battleline on 7 November as Du Pont ' s squadron pounded Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island , forcing the Confederate s to abandon the emplacement , thereby allowing a combined Union Army and Navy Force to land and occupy this important base of operations . " Mohican " was hit six times by Confederate shells in this engagement , suffering superficial hull damage and having one man killed and seven wounded . One of the wounded officers was Acting Master Isaac D . Seyburn . Blockade duty , 1861 - 1862 . The steamer sailed to Charleston Bar at the end of November accompanying part of the " Stone Fleet " , and stood by while these ships were scuttled on 18 – 19 December to obstruct channels to Confederate ports in the Carolinas and Georgia . The warship then operated off the southern coast with steamer , searching for Confederate shipping , capturing British blockade runner " Arrow " off Fernandina , Florida on 25 February 1862 . In company with sloop and schooner , she took possession of St . Simons Island and Jekyll Island near Brunswick , Georgia on 9 – 10 March , but found them deserted because of a general Confederate withdrawal from the seacoast and coastal islands . In early April , " Mohican " reconnoitered the Wilmington River to determine the best way of obstructing it , helping to cut off Fort Pulaski from Savannah as part of the projected attack on that fort and then operated out of St . Simons Bay , Georgia , on blockade until ordered to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania on 29 June . The ship decommissioned there on 9 July . Hunting the raiders , 1862 - 1864 . " Mohican " recommissioned on 17 October and five days later was ordered on special service chasing the Confederate raiders CSS " Florida " and . Sailing immediately , the steamer cruised on station from the Cape Verde Islands to the Cape of Good Hope operating off the coasts of Africa and South America into 1864 . She returned to Philadelphia on 14 April 1864 without contacting the elusive enemy and was decommissioned there two weeks later . Battles of Fort Fisher , 1864 - 1865 . Reactivated on 7 October , the warship was assigned to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter ' s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and cruised off Wilmington , North Carolina through December . She then joined the rest of the squadron in the attack on Fort Fisher on 24 – 25 December , firing over 500 shells in the fierce bombardment . " Mohican " resumed her blockade , now off Beaufort , North Carolina , until the second attack on Fort Fisher from 13 – 15 January 1865 . As part of the first line of battle , the sloop bombarded the Confederate bastion throughout the three - day campaign , supplying covering fire for the landings on the second and third days until the fort was taken on the 15th . During the engagement , " Mohican " lost one man killed and 10 wounded . End of the war , 1865 . The warship was ordered to Rear Adm . John Dahlgren ' s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron on 17 January , carrying dispatches for General William T . Sherman . She began blockading off Ossabaw Island , South Carolina on 3 February and remained there until ordered north on the 24th . The steam sloop decommissioned at Boston Navy Yard on 26 April and remained there — repairing — until recommissioning on 18 August 1866 . Post - Civil War . Pacific Squadron , 1865 - 1872 . The sloop was then assigned to the Pacific Squadron and departed 6 September for the west coast , steaming via St . Thomas , ports in Brazil , Montevideo , round Cape Horn , to Valparaíso , joining Rear Adm . Dahlgren in at Callao , Peru on 25 April 1867 and then steaming up the Pacific coast , through Panama and the coast of Mexico , arriving at San Francisco , California on 28 July . " Mohican " remained on the Pacific coast through 1872 , cruising to South America in the fall and winter of 1867 and then decommissioning from 3 April 1868 – 7 June 1869 at Mare Island Navy Yard . The warship made one cruise to Siberia and the northwest coast during the summer of 1869 and then departed on 11 October to cruise to Hawaii , returning on 11 January 1870 . She then made a second cruise to the Pacific Northwest and in May sailed to patrol off Mexico . On 17 June 1870 , men from " Mohican " attacked the Mexican pirate steamer " Forward " , which had terrorized the coast for the previous month . In a fierce gun battle between " Mohican " s armed boats and the outlaw vessel off Mazatlán , the pirate was boarded and captured . The sloop continued her cruise as far south as Callao through August 1871 , returning on the 25th . The warship made one more cruise along the coast of Mexico to Panama from October – April 1872 . " Mohican " decommissioned at Mare Island on 25 June 1872 and by the end of the year had sunk at her moorings . She was subsequently towed onto the Mare Island mud flats and broken up .