USS Mercedita was a wooden steamer that served as a gunboat in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Service history Mercedita was built at Brooklyn, New York in 1861. She was purchased by the Union Navy on 31 July 1861 from J. C. Jewett & Co., and commissioned at New York on 8 December 1861, Commander Henry S. Stellwagen in command. Mercedita joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron on 3 January 1862, and the next day chased two vessels attempting to run the blockade; Julia and an unidentified ship ran aground trying to escape and were set afire by their crews. In March, Mercedita was ordered to Apalachicola, Florida to relieve in West Pass. There she destroyed the Confederate batteries at St. Vincent Island, Florida on 21 March. She and captured Apalachicola on 3 April. Mercedita pursued blockade runner Magnolia on 12 April, but during the chase Confederate ships Whitmore and Florida slipped through the blockade. Mercedita captured blockade runner Bermuda on 27 April and schooners Victoria and Ida on 12 July. In September, she transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina on 19 September. She served on the blockade of Charleston Harbor until the end of January 1863. On the night of 31 January, CSS Palmetto State and Chicora, both Confederate ironclad rams, slipped out of the main ship channel of the harbor. They hoped to recapture British iron propeller Princess Royal, taken by Union blockaders two days earlier with two powerful steam engines for new Confederate ironclads aboard. Mercedita was the first Union ship the southern raiders encountered, and Palmetto State succeeded in ramming her, ripping a hole in her keel, piercing her boiler, and leaving her in a sinking condition. Challenged "Surrender or I'll sink you," Mercedita – unable to move or bring her guns to bear – struck her colors. However, the Confederate rams – eager for further action – accepted paroles for Merceditas officers and crew and sped off to attack , and before retiring to Charleston. "A Lieutenant’s commission in the Confederate States Navy was conferred on me, with orders to report for duty on the ironclad Chicora at Charleston. My duties were those of a deck officer, and I had charge of the first division. On the occasion of the attack upon the blockading squadron ... It was my part, on the memorable morning, to aim