to defend adequately the opposite side of the stronghold and allowed Terry's troops to enter from the beach along the Cape Fear. That night, after the Southern garrison had surrendered, two men of the Sassacus party were killed by a magazine explosion, swelling the double-ender's casualty list for the operation to three killed and three wounded. Late and post war service For more than a month, Sassacus fought with Porter against Southern fortifications up the Cape Fear, and was on hand for the fall of Fort Anderson and Fort Strong. During operations against the latter, she was hit three times, once by a shot below her waterline which caused heavy leaking. Late in February, the durable double-ender was ordered back to the James River to support Grant as he closed his stranglehold on the southern capital. After the Confederacy collapsed, Sassacus cruised in the Chesapeake Bay to prevent any possible attempt of conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln to escape by sea. Upon her return to Hampton Roads on 2 May, the ship, in need of extensive repairs, was ordered north. She sailed for Philadelphia on the evening of 4 May. Sassacus'' was decommissioned and was laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 13 May 1865. She was sold there on 28 August 1868 to John Roach. See also Union Navy Ships captured in the American Civil War References Ships of the Union Navy Ships built in Kittery, Maine Steamships of the United States Navy Sassacus-class gunboats American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States 1862 ships