USS Restless (1861)

History
United States
Acquired:	26 August 1861
Commissioned:	December 1861
Decommissioned:	1865
Struck:	1865 (est.)
Fate:	sold, 21 September 1865
General characteristics
Tonnage:	265
Length:	108 ft 8 in (33.12 m)
Beam:	27 ft 8 in (8.43 m)
Draft:	9 ft 11 in (3.02 m) (depth of hold)
Propulsion:	sail
Armament:	four 32-pounder guns

USS Restless (1861) was a barque acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

She was used as a gunboat by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

Restless was purchased from Everett and Hawley at New York City on 26 August 1861 and commissioned the following December, Acting Volunteer Lt. Edward Conroy in command.

Ordered south upon commissioning, Restless sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, took on supplies for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and toward the end of January 1862 arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina.

Assigned to the blockade force off Charleston, South Carolina, she took up station off Bull's Bay on 4 February. On the 11th, two escaped slaves provided information on the ships carrying food into Charleston, their use of inland water routes, and conditions in the blockaded city.

Two days later, Restless, following that information, discovered three vessels within the shoals. On the 14th, armed boats from Restless captured and destroyed the sloop Edisto and the schooners Wandoo, Elizabeth, and Theodore Stony. All vessels had been carrying rice.

At the end of March, Restless put into Port Royal for provisioning. By then she had intercepted five more blockade runners; two schooners were kept as prizes; one sloop and two schooners were destroyed.

Ordered back to the Charleston area on 15 April, she took up station between Rattlesnake Shoal and Caper's Island. On 2 May she captured the schooner Flash and sent her to New York for adjudication. On the 11th she returned to Bull's Bay.

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