USS Beauregard-- Part 1: A Short Confederate Privateer Career

From Wikipedia.

Saturday, I wrote about two strangely-named United States warships capturing blockade-runners 150 years ago this month. One was the USS Beauregard. Why would the Union Navy have a warship named after a Confederate general. Or was it?

The Bearegard was launched in 1850 as the schooner Priscilla C. Ferguson, but became a Confederate privateer mounting a 24-pdr. rifle and a crew of 40, commissioned into service in Charleston, SC 14 October 1861 and renamed for the hero of Fort Sumter and Manassas, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard.

It ran the blockade out of Charleston on November 5th. Just seven days later, on Nov. 12th, it was spotted by the USS William G. Anderson in the Bahama Channel near Cuba and captured after a two-hour chase. The Beauregard, as a privateer, never captured any ships.

Not Too Successful As a Privateer. --Old B-Runner