USS Columbia (1862)-- Part 1: A Captured Blockade Runner

From Wikipedia.

The screw steamer Columbia was a 168-foot blockade runner captured by the USS Santiago de Cuba off the coast of Florida on 3 August 1862.  It was purchased by the U.S. Navy at the Key West Prize Court on 4 November 1862 and commissioned in December under command of Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Joseph Pitty Couthouy.

It had a complement of 100 and mounted six 24-pdr. smoothbore cannons and one 30-pdr. rifled gun.

While serving with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Wilmington, North Carolina, it ran aground and was wrecked off Masonboro Inlet. on 14 January 1863.  Forty of her crew and her commanding officer were captured by Confederates.

A Short U.S. Navy Career.  --Old B-Runner