USS Delaware (1861)

USRC Louis McLane, formerly USS Delaware.
History
United States
Name:	USS Delaware
Builder:	Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Delaware
Laid down:	1860
Launched:	1861
Acquired:	14 October 1861
Commissioned:	12 December 1861
Decommissioned:	5 August 1865
Struck:	est. 1919
Fate:	sold on 12 September 1865 to the US Treasury Department for $40,000
Notes:	Commissioned as USRC Delaware, 1865 Commissioned as USRC Louis McLane, 1873 Merchant steamer Louis Dolive, 1903
General characteristics
Type:	Gunboat
Displacement:	357 long tons (363 t)
Length:	161 ft (49 m)
Beam:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Draft:	6 ft (1.8 m)
Depth:	8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
Propulsion:	1 × walking beam engine side wheel propelled
Speed:	13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h)
Complement:	65 (Navy), 33 (Revenue Cutter Service)
Armament:	4 × 32-pounder guns, 1 × 12-pounder rifled gun

USS Delaware (1861) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy for use during the American Civil War. She had a very active naval career as a gunboat for over three years, and after the war served as a revenue cutter for over 37 years. The steamer was sold to the private sector in 1909, and disappeared from shipping registers in 1919.

The Delaware—a sidewheel steamer—was the fourth ship to be named Delaware by the Navy. She was built in 1861 at the Harlan & Hollingsworth Iron Shipbuilding Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The steamboat, initially called the Edenton, was ordered in 1860 by the Albemarle Steam Packet Company. This company was made up of 24 businessmen from northeastern North Carolina who wanted to operate a steamboat in the Albemarle Sound area of North Carolina. According to the agreement, the steamboat would be built using "timbers of bar iron, attached to the hull plating via keepers." The Packet Company's president, Edward Wood of Edenton, grew concerned over the deteriorating situation between the North and the South. Wood ultimately stopped payments over fear that the steamboat, now called the Virginia Dare would be detained. (Hayes Collection, SHC) Later the Virginia Dare was purchased by the Union Navy on 14 October 1861, and renamed USS Delaware. Lieutenant S. P. Quackenbush was placed in command.

Delaware's task—during the course of her patrols—was to sink or capture Confederate ships, and to bombard forts and other military installations. Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Delaware sailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 12 December 1861 and stood up the James River on 26 December 1861 on patrol. On 12 January 1862, she sailed for Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina as part of General Burnside's expedition against Confederate forces in the North Carolina sounds. Delaware took part in the capture of Roanoke Island from 7 to 8 February 1862; and on 10 February 1862 she took part in the attack on Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where she shared in the capture or destruction of five Confederate gunboats and two schooners.