The USS Louisiana's Navy Service-- Part 1: Civilian Ship Acquired By U.S. Navy

From Wikipedia.

I wrote about this ship being ordered November 20, 1864, to report to Beaufort, N.C., and then to Hampton Roads for conversion into Butler's Powder Ship for use in blowing up Fort Fisher, North Carolina.  I was always under the opinion the Louisiana was an older ship.  It wasn't.

It was built by Harlan and Hollingsworth, in 1860, in Wilmington, Delaware.  Its first owners were S. & J.M. Flanagan of Philadelphia.  Acquired by U.S. Navy at Philadelphia on 10 July 1861 and commissioned in August 1861 with Lieutenant Arthur Murray in command.

Steamer, 295 tons, 143.2 feet long, 27.3 beam, , 85 complement, armament: one 18-pdr. smoothbore Dahlgren, one 32-pdr. gun, one 12-pdr. Dahlgren rifle.

Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and until January 1862, it operated along the Virginia coast.  It also participated in the Battle of Roanoke Island on February 7-8, 1862 and the Battle of Elizabeth City on Feb. 10.

--Old B-Runner