USS Sweet Brier (1862)

Career (US)
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	1862
Acquired:	22 September 1863
Commissioned:	25 January 1864
Decommissioned:	13 July 1865
Struck:	1865 (est.)
Fate:	sold, 25 October 1865
General characteristics
Displacement:	240 tons
Length:	120' 0"
Beam:	21' 3"
Draught:	depth of hold 10' 0" draft 9' 6";
Propulsion:	steam engine screw-propelled
Speed:	9 knots
Complement:	37
Armament:	one 20-pounder Parrott rifle one heavy 12-pounder smoothbore

USS Sweet Brier (1862) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

Sweet Briar was used by the Union Navy as an armed tugboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.

Commissioned at New York City in 1862

Sweet Brier -- a wooden screw tug built at Buffalo, New York, in 1862 -- was purchased by the Union Navy at New York City on 22 September 1863; and was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 25 January 1864, Acting Ensign J. D. Dexter in command.

Assigned to blockade duty with the South Atlantic blockade

The tug departed New York City on 3 February 1864, and arrived off Charleston, South Carolina, on 4 March and was assigned to blockade duty off that southern port.

On 8 July, she captured blockade running schooner Pocahontas off Charleston laden with cotton.

Sweet Brier continued to serve in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron through the end of the war and sailed north on 27 June 1865.

Post-war decommissioning, sale and subsequent maritime career

She was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 13 July 1865 and was sold at public auction there on 25 October to D. T. Rowland. She was redocumented as Conqueror on 28 December 1866 and remained in merchant service until 1900.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

See also

• United States Navy
• American Civil War

External links

• USS Sweet Brier