CSS/USS Diana-- Part 2: Captured at New Orleans, Then Recaptured in Louisiana

The Diana, a sidewheel merchant steamer was captured by the U.S. Navy  17 April 1862 at New Orleans, Louisiana, and turned over  on 7 May  to General Benjamin Butler, the Union Army commander in New Orleans.  She was used by the Union Army as a transport until November 1862, then returned to naval service, Acting Master Weeks in command.

During her short career in the U.S. Navy, the Diana assisted in the capture of two vessels with sugar and molasses on board on 6 December 1862.  Later, it took part in an attack on Confederate forces  in Bayou Teche, Louisiana, and the destruction of  the CSS J.A. Cotton 14 January 1863.

For the remainder of her Union service,the Diana assisted other Union gunboats and Army detachments in Berwick Bay, Louisiana,, until 28 March 1863, when she was recaptured by the Confederates while on a reconnaissance of Grand Lake and Atchafalaya River in Louisiana.

I know that it was at Galveston when it helped John N. Maffitt and his CSS Owl escape.

--Old B-Runner