USS Keystone State ( 1853 ) USS Keystone State was a wooden sidewheel steamer that served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War . " Keystone State " was built at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania in 1853 by J . W . Lynn . She was chartered by the navy on 19 April 1861 from the Ocean Steam Navigation Co . at Philadelphia , and purchased on 10 June 1861 . She commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 19 July 1861 , Commander G . H . Scott in command . Civil War service . Caribbean , 1861 . Chartered to search for Confederate raider CSS " Sumter " , she shared in the capture of " Hiawatha " at Hampton Roads on 10 May 1861 . When her charter expired on 23 May , she returned to Philadelphia , where she was purchased , fitted out , and commissioned . She left the Delaware Capes on 21 July and cruised in the West Indies seeking Confederate blockade runner s in Caribbean ports . On the high seas , she captured " Saloon " on 10 October and towed her to Philadelphia via Key West , Florida . South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , 1861 - 1863 . At Philadelphia , Commander William Edgar Leroy took command of the ship on 12 November . The sidewheeler stood down the Delaware River and out to sea on 8 December , visited Bermuda , and arrived Hampton Roads the day after Christmas . She got underway on 9 January 1862 , and joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Charleston , South Carolina on 13 January . Ordered to the Florida coast , she engaged Confederate batteries at Amelia Island on 18 January and captured schooner " Mars " on 5 February . " Keystone State " arrived at Port Royal , South Carolina for refit and replenishment on 18 March , getting underway again on 29 March . She chased a blockade runner and fired at another on 3 April , but both escaped . On 10 April , she chased schooner " Liverpool " of Nassau ashore where she was burned to the water ' s edge . Schooner " Dixie " fell prey to the vigilant blockader on 15 April , steamer " Elizabeth " then struck her colors on 29 May , and schooner " Cora " surrendered two days later . " Keystone State " took blockade runner " Sarah " off Charleston on 20 June and pursued an unidentified steamer all day and night of 24 June before giving up the chase . She took schooner " Fanny " attempting to slip into Charleston with a cargo of salt on 22 August . However , this was dangerous work , and " Keystone State " well earned her long list of prizes . On 31 January 1863 , she discovered a ship off Charleston , stood fast , and fired at her . The ship responded in kind , from time to time hitting the blockader . At 06 : 00 , a shot ripped into " Keystone State " s steam drum , scalding an officer and nineteen men to death and wounding another twenty . Later that morning , towed " Keystone State " to Port Royal for repairs . Ready for action again , she got underway on George Washington ' s Birthday ( 22 February ) for blockading station off St . Simons Sound , Georgia , where she served until departing for Philadelphia on 2 June for repairs at the navy yard , where she decommissioned on 10 June . North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , 1863 - 1865 . " Keystone State " recommissioned on 3 October , Cdr . Edward Donaldson in command , and stood out from Delaware Capes on 27 October . Three days later she joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Wilmington , North Carolina . While cruising off Wilmington , the veteran side wheeler captured the steamer " Margaret and Jessie " on 5 November . On 29 May 1864 , she picked up 235 bales of cotton which had been thrown overboard by a chase ; and the next day she captured steamer " Caledonia " . She took steamer " Suez " off Beaufort , North Carolina on 5 June and steamer " Rouen " at sea 2 July . On 26 July , she chased a steamer which escaped after throwing her cargo of cotton overboard . " Keystone State " then picked up over 60 bales . On a similar occasion on 8 August , she salvaged 225 bales . On 24 August , she chased and captured steamer " Lilian " and , with , in fact the " Margaret and Jessie " that the " Keystone State " had captured , picked up 58 bales . On 5 September , with , she chased and fired at steamer " Elsie " . A shell exploded in the blockade runner ' s forward hold , starting a fire which " Keystone State " extinguished . " Keystone State " then escorted her prize to Beaufort , North Carolina . First Battle of Fort Fisher , December 1864 . During the fall of 1864 , the sidewheeler continued blockade duty off the North Carolina coast ; and , as winter set in , she prepared to attack Fort Fisher , which protected the important Confederate port of Wilmington . Shortly after dawn on Christmas Eve , " Keystone State " , steaming with the reserve squadron of the fleet in line of battle , got under way toward Fort Fisher . Her guns , firing over and between the ships in the first echelon , supported troops as they landed and fought to take the fort . However , late in the afternoon , the Union Army commander , General Benjamin Franklin Butler , decided that the Confederate works could not be taken and ordered his troops to reembark . " Keystone State " withdrew to Beaufort . Second Battle of Fort Fisher , January 1865 . Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter , the Union Navy commander , was not to be thwarted . He renewed the attack on Fort Fisher on 13 January 1865 with a force of 59 warships . He sent some 2 , 000 sailors and marines ashore to aid the 8 , 000 Army troops led by Major General Alfred H . Terry . After three days of bitter fighting , the bravely defended Confederate fortress fell , closing the South ' s last supply line with Europe . " Keystone State " reached the scene before dawn on 16 January and received the wounded . End of the War , 1865 . After the capture of Wilmington , the sidewheeler continued to operate along the Carolina coast supporting clean - up operations which snuffed out Southern resistance . She got underway on 13 March towing monitor to Hampton Roads , and arrived at Baltimore , Maryland on 20 March . " Keystone State " decommissioned on 25 March and was sold at auction at Washington , D . C . on 15 September to M . O . Roberts . She was redocumented as SS " San Francisco " on 22 December , and operated in merchant service until 1879 .