The Steamer St. Nicholas Became the CSS Rappahannock

From the Civil War North Carolina Site.

The last two weeks I have been writing about the Union steamer St. Nicholas, taken by Confederates boarding while posing as passengers and led by a former U.S. Navy officer named George Hollins back on June 29-30, 1861.

The Confederate sidewheel steamer CSS Rappahannock was a 1,200 tons, one gun warship, formerly the passenger steamer St. Nicholas captured on the Potomac River 28 June 1861.  It was condemned in prize court and purchased by the Confederate Navy and commanded by Lt. H.H. Lewis, CSN.

It operated on the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers until April 1862 when it was burned by the Confederates at Fredericksburg..

The Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks says it was burned April 19, 1862, at Fredericktown.

--Old B-R'er