The first USS Lackawanna was a screw-propelled sloop-of-war in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was named after the Lackawanna River in Pennsylvania. Construction and commissioning Lackawanna was launched by the New York Navy Yard at Brooklyn, New York, on 9 August 1862, sponsored by Ms. Imogen Page Cooper, and was commissioned on 8 January 1863, Captain John B. Marchand in command. Civil War The new screw sloop-of-war departed New York on 20 January 1863 to join the Union blockade of the Confederate coast. She reported to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at Pensacola, Florida, early in February 1863 and for the remainder of the war served along the Gulf Coast of the Confederacy, principally off Mobile Bay, Alabama. Lackawanna took her first prize – Neptune – on 14 June 1863 after a long chase in which the Glasgow-registered ship had jettisoned her cargo trying to escape. Lacakwanna scored again the next day, capturing the steamer Planter as the blockade runner attempted a dash from Mobile, Alabama, to Havana, Cuba, laden with cotton and resin. Following duty along the Texas coast near Galveston in March and April 1864, Lackawanna returned to the blockade of Mobile early in May 1864 to prevent the escape of the Confederate ram CSS Tennessee. During the summer of 1864 she served in the blockade while preparing for Rear Admiral David Farragut's conquest of Mobile Bay. On 9 July 1864, with , , and , she braved the guns of Fort Morgan to shell the steamer Virgin, a large blockade runner aground at the entrance of Mobile Bay. Their guns forced a Confederate river steamer to abandon efforts to assist Virgin, but the next day the Confederates refloated the blockade runner, which reached safety in Mobile Bay. Closing Mobile was an important part of the Union strategy to isolate and subdue the Confederacy. At dawn on the morning of 5 August 1864, Farragut's ships crossed the bar and entered the Mobile Bay. A field of naval mines and a Confederate squadron led by CSS Tennessee blocked their advance. Farragut's lead monitor, , struck a mine and sank in seconds. The Confederate flagship, Tennessee, vainly tried to ram , and the action became general, raging for more than an hour. At one point in the struggle, Lackawanna rammed Tennessee at full speed, causing Tennessee to list, and later Lackawanna collided with Farragut's flagship while