USS Columbia.
History
United States
Name	USS Columbia
Acquired	4 November 1862
Commissioned	December 1862
Out of service	14 January 1863
Captured	by Union Navy forces, 3 August 1862
Fate	Ran aground, 14 January 1863
General characteristics
Type	Patrol boat
Displacement	503 long tons (511 t)
Length	168 ft (51 m)
Beam	25 ft (7.6 m)
Draft	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine screw-propelled
Range	Ship complement=100
Armament	6 × 24-pounder smoothbore guns, 1 × 30-pounder rifle

USS Columbia was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

Service history

Columbia, a screw steamer was captured on 3 August 1862 by Santiago de Cuba while running the blockade off the coast of Florida; purchased by the Navy from the Key West, Florida Prize Court on 4 November 1862; outfitted at New York Navy Yard; and commissioned sometime in December, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Joseph Pitty Couthouy in command. While serving with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Wilmington, North Carolina, Columbia ran aground and was wrecked off Masonboro Inlet on 14 January 1863. Forty men of her crew — including her commanding officer — were captured by the Confederates.