USS Tioga (1862)

The double-ender sailed for Hampton Roads, Virginia, late that day, joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron upon her arrival there on 5 July, and promptly ascended the James River to support Union troops beleaguered in a small pocket on the north bank of the river.

Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had recently defeated General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac in the Seven Days campaign and penned the Northern forces in a bridgehead at Harrison's Landing where they were protected by the guns of Union warships and fed by Federal supply ships. The Union gunboats, charged with maintaining control of the James for the North to assure the continuation of McClellan's waterborne support, constituted an independent division of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron called the James River Flotilla.

While in the James River Flotilla, Tioga escorted supply ships and frequently exchanged fire with Southern batteries and sharpshooters ashore. One of her more unusual duties during this assignment was the chore of protecting the barge which carried and launched an observation balloon to reconnoiter Confederate positions and troop deployments. Thus, it has been claimed jocularly that she was one of the first warships to screen an aircraft carrier.

During much of August, Tioga helped to cover the movement of Union troops as McClellan evacuated the peninsula between the James and the York Rivers and transferred his troops north by water to protect Washington, D.C. After the withdrawal had been largely completed, the James River Flotilla was broken up on 29 August, with a dozen of its ships being transferred to the Potomac Flotilla and the remainder reverting to the direct control of Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough, who commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Tioga was one of the Union warships sent north to strengthen Federal control of the Potomac River and, by doing so, to beef up the Union forces afloat ready to defend Washington, D.C. At this time, General Robert E. Lee was defeating General John Pope's Army of Virginia in the Second Battle of Bull Run, greatly endangering the Federal capital.

However, before Tioga could become an effective part of the Potomac Flotilla, a change of orders reassigned her to the newly established West India Squadron, formed – under the command of Commodore Charles Wilkes – to counter the threat posed by the recent commissioning of the Confederate commerce raider Florida and the expected activation of the steam warship then being built for the South in England under the designation 290 which would prey on Northern shipping as Alabama. While Tioga never encountered either of these adversaries which would win renown under Confederate colors, she did compile an impressive score against blockade runners.

She took her first prize on 14 February 1863, when she overhauled Avon and sent that English schooner to Key West, Florida, for adjudication. On 13 March, she captured another British schooner, Florence Nightingale, laden with cotton and without papers. Nine days later, she made a prize of the English side-wheel steamer Granite City. The British sloop Justina struck her colors to the gunboat on 23 April.

On 20 June, while cruising in company with USS Santiago de Cuba and USS Octorara, Tioga sighted a strange steamer; and the three Union ships gave chase. When they noticed a large quantity of cotton floating in the water, Tioga and Octorara hove to and picked up the jettisoned cargo, while Santiago de Cuba kept up the pursuit and overtook the English steamer Victory which she sent to Boston, Massachusetts, under a prize crew.

A week later, Tioga captured Julia as that English schooner attempted to slip through the Union blockade laden with cotton and rosin. On 25 September, she took Confederate steamer Herald which had escaped from the South with a cargo of cotton and naval stores.

Three days before the gunboat made this capture, orders had left Washington to transfer Tioga to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. After beginning her new assignment, the double-ender participated in the capture of sloop Last Trial near Key West; but thereafter she spent much of the autumn undergoing repairs at Key West.

Early the following year, she resumed her success as a bane to blockade runners. She took an unidentified schooner – laden with salt, liquors, coffee, arms, and other items badly needed by the South – off Grand Bahama Island on 4 January 1864. On 20 March, she overhauled the sloop Swallows – laden with cotton, rosin, and tobacco – and sent her to Boston. About the same time, she chased and overtook the sloop Oriental.

Late in the spring of 1864, yellow fever broke out on board Tioga; and, on 19 June, she was ordered north. She arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 27th and was decommissioned two days later but remained in quarantine in the lower harbor until October.