for naval service on 19 April 1861. DuPont received the order in the morning and chartered the ship in three hours. Her charter rate was $600 per day. She was towed to the Navy Yard that day, and even during the tow machinists worked to convert her to a naval vessel. At 6 pm that evening DuPont began loading her with more than 50 Marines, 50 sailors, ammunition, seven days of coal, and two weeks of provisions. The ship was armed with four 24-pounder guns. She sailed at dawn on 20 April 1861, under the command of Lieutenant Maxwell Woodhull, to deliver arms and troops to Washington, D.C. On her way to Washington, Keystone State arrived off the Norfolk Navy Yard on the morning of 21 April 1861, by which time it was aflame to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Confederacy. She worked with several other Navy ships to extricate USS Cumberland from the docks through the obstacles placed by the Confederates, and helped evacuate sailors from the Navy Yard and USS Pennsylvania. She reached Washington on 23 April 1861. On 24 April 1861, now under the command of Lieutenant Stephen D. Trenchard, she was ordered to New York to take on supplies, and then to sail to back Washington D.C. The ship arrived in Washington on 1 May 1861. On 3 May 1861 Keystone State embarked gun carriages and ordinance supplies from the Washington Arsenal for delivery to Fort Washington and Fortress Monroe. She then sailed back to New York to pick up yet more supplies to reinforce Washington, including five guns. She reached Washington on 14 May 1861. President Lincoln imposed a blockade of Confederate ports on 19 April 1861. The announcement caught a number of foreign vessels in port. As they sailed home, many were snapped up by the Union Navy. The British brig Hiawatha was heavily laden with tobacco when she sailed for Liverpool on 19 May 1861. USS Minnesota, part of the blockading force based on Fortress Monroe, fired two shots at her and then sent a prize crew aboard to take possession. Hiawatha was towed to New York by Keystone State, arriving on 23 May 1861. On board, Keystone State had 115 women and children who were fleeing the conflict in the South, mostly from the Norfolk area. On that same day she was ordered to sail to Philadelphia to