The first USS Moccasin, a wood screw tug, was built as Hero in 1864 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 and purchased by the US Navy on 11 July 1864 from S. & J. M. Flanagan at Philadelphia; and commissioned 14 July 1864 at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Acting Ensign James Brown in command.

Service

Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, on 25 July Hero was renamed Moccasin. She acted as guard boat off Fort Delaware

Fort Delaware

Fort Delaware is a harbor defense facility, designed by Chief Engineer Joseph Gilbert Totten, and located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. During the American Civil War, the Union used Fort Delaware as a prison for Confederate prisoners of war, political prisoners, federal convicts, and...

 until 13 August when Moccasin joined tug and in pursuit of blockade‑runner CSS Tallahassee

CSS Tallahassee

The CSS Tallahassee was a twin-screw steamer and cruiser in the Confederate States Navy, purchased in 1864, and used for commerce raiding off the Atlantic coast.-History:...

. The two tugs cruised as far north as Nantucket Island, Massachusetts., before returning to Philadelphia 19 August. Moccasin resumed patrol off Fort Delaware into early 1865.

On 13 March 1865 Moccasin was ordered to St. Inigoes, Maryland, for duty with the Potomac Flotilla

Potomac Flotilla

The Potomac Flotilla, or the Potomac Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy created in the early days of the American Civil War to secure Union communications in the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River and their tributaries, and to disrupt Confederate communications and shipping in the...

 under Commander Foxhall A. Parker. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox 9 April, but the news was slow in spreading. With half of the flotilla released from service in May, Moccasin continued operations in the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

. On 30 July took Moccasin in tow for Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

 where the tug debarked patients from the Washington, DC, naval hospital.

Upon return to Washington, Moccasin was decommissioned 12 August and sold 18 September 1865 to the Treasury Department

United States Department of the Treasury

The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...

 for use as a revenue cutter.