USS Virginia (1861)

Virginia was assigned duty with Rear Admiral David G. Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron and, within a week of her commissioning, departed New York City, bound for the Gulf of Mexico. En route, she stopped briefly at Hampton Roads, Virginia, finally joining Farragut's squadron in July 1863. However, further repairs and modifications were needed before she could become a fully effective fighting unit, and she spent August and most of September 1863 at New Orleans, Louisiana, undergoing overhaul.

Virginia finally returned to active duty in late September 1863 and was deployed along the coast of Texas for the duration of the war. There, she conducted numerous patrol and reconnaissance missions – which often took her up the rivers – and also compiled an impressive list of captures while enforcing the Union blockade of the Confederacy.

Her first success was the seizure of the British blockade runner Jenny with a cargo of cotton off the coast of Texas on 6 October 1863. Between 2 and 14 November 1863, screw sloop-of-war USS Monongahela, gunboat USS Owasco, and Virginia convoyed and supported Major General Nathaniel Banks's successful landing at Brazos Santiago, Texas, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. The expedition began a Union offensive aimed both at wresting Texas from Confederate control and deterring French troops in Mexico from attempting to invade Texas, and on 4 November 1863, Confederate forces evacuated Brownsville, Texas, giving the Union a strong foothold at the Mexican border. While supporting the expedition, Virginia captured the British steamer Matamoras on 4 November 1863 and the British brig Dashing Wave 5 November 1863.

After the Rio Grande expedition, Virginia returned to blockade duty and found the waters off Texas a fertile breeding ground of smuggling activity. This was especially true of the area off San Luis Pass, and Virginia made most of her captures there. These included the British schooner Mary Douglas and her cargo of coffee, bananas, and linen, which she seized on 15 February 1864, and the British schooner Henry Colthirst, which she took on 22 February 1864. On 29 February 1864 off Galveston, Texas, Virginia overhauled the Confederate schooner Camilla with a cargo of cotton. She captured the sloop Cassie Holtat the same time, but Cassie Holt grounded off San Luis Pass and was burned.

Once again off San Luis Pass, Virginia captured the sloop Randall on 8 March 1864, the schooner Sylphide on 10 March 1864, and the Mexican schooner Juanita on 11 April 1864. However, Juanita grounded on the 13 April and the Confederates recaptured her with the loss of her Union prize crew. This incident was partially offset by Virginia′s capture of the Mexican schooner Alma on the 19 March 1864 and the seizure and destruction of the sloop Rosina on 20 March 1864. Virginia′s last captures off San Luis Pass included the schooner Experiment, which she took on 3 May 1864 and subsequently destroyed, and 94 stacked bales of cotton picked up ashore on the 7 and 8 May 1864.

Virginia returned to New Orleans in mid-May 1864 for badly needed repairs to her boilers. She remained at New Orleans until 5 December 1864, when she departed for service in the blockade off Galveston. There she captured the schooner Belle on 27 December 1864. She also discovered the British sidewheel steamer Acadia wrecked on the coast of Texas about 6 miles 9 10 km) east-northeast of Velasco on 5–6 February 1865 and shelled her, but was unable to launch a boat crew to board and burn her because of rough seas.[1]