A Blockade Runner Catcher

The USS Sacramento was commissioned January 7^th 1863 under Commander Andrew E K Benham.

The USS Sacramento was launched from the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine April 28^th 1862.  Her first assignment after being commissioned on January 7^th 1863 with Commander Andrew E K Benham in charge was blockade duty off the North Carolina coast.  She captured the blockade runner the British ship the Wanderer off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina on May 1^st 1863.  In February 1864 the Sacramento was ordered to European waters where she cruised off the British and French coasts looking for Confederate blockade runners.

The Sacramento took part in detaining the CSS Rappahannock in France and the CSS Stonewall off Spain in early March 1865.  Following the end of the Civil War the Sacramento left Queenstown, Ireland July 25^th 1865 and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on August 12^th 1865.  She was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard August 21^st 1865 and remained inactive until 1866.