USS Berberry-- Part 1: Part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron Off Fort Fisher

From Wikipedia.

The USS Berberry, like the USS Aster, was a steam powered tugboat acquired by the Union Navy which purchased the ship 13 August 1864,  Its original name was Columbia, but was renamed USS Berberry and placed in commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 12 September 1864.

(99 feet long, 20 foot beam, 35 crew members, Armament:  two 12-pdr. smoothbore and two 24-pdr. smoothbore guns.)

Departed Philadelphia September 29 and reached Beaufort, N.C., on October for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and took up station off New Inlet, North Carolina.

At 3:00 in the morning October 4, while cruising off the Mound Light (in Fort Fisher), the Berberry discovered a steamer making for New Inlet and gave chase, firing two shots but it escaped into New Inlet.

--Old B-Runner