USS Cowslip-- Part 1: Built in New York, Acquired By the Navy

On May 29, I wrote about the USS Cowslip capturing a blockade runner.

Here is more information on this ship.

From Wikipedia.

The USS Cowslip was a steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1863 for blockade duty.  It was also used as an ammunition ship, a dispatch boat,  and a rescue and salvage vessel.

It was a sidewheel steamer built in New York as the Meteor and purchased 21 December 1863 and fitted out as a gunboat at the New York Navy Yard, commissioned 27 January 1864, Acting Ensign R. Canfield in command.  It was 123 feet long, had a 24-foot beam and crew of 36. It mounted  one 20-pdr rifled gun and two 24-pdr. smoothbores.

--Old B-Runner