USS John P. Jackson (1860) was a steamship acquired by the United States Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. She was assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. as well as the bombardment of Mississippi River ports. Commissioned at the New York Navy Yard John P. Jackson was built at Brooklyn, New York, in 1860, for ferry service. She was the ship that ferried president-elect Abraham Lincoln across the Hudson River en route to his inauguration. She was purchased by the Navy at Newark, New Jersey, from Jersey City Ferry Company on 6 November 1861. She was commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 14 February 1862, Lieutenant Selim E. Woodworth in command. Civil War service Assigned to the Gulf blockade John P. Jackson was ordered to Key West on 10 February to serve as one of the steamers in Comdr. David D. Porter's mother flotilla. On 30 March she arrived at Ship Island from Key West, Florida, as Flag Officer David Farragut assembled vessels for his campaign against New Orleans, Louisiana. While Farragut labored to move his deep-draft, sea-going ships across the bar into the Mississippi River, John P. Jackson was part of the task force which secured Pass Christian, Mississippi on 4 April. During the operation she joined USS New London and USS Hatteras in driving off Confederate steamers Carondelet, Pamlico, and Oregon as they attempted to prevent the Union landing which wrested the area around Biloxi, Mississippi from the South. The same day John P. Jackson captured steamer P. C. Wallis with a cargo of naval stores. Bombarding Forts St. Philip and Jackson She next escorted General Butler's occupation troop ships to the Mississippi passes while towing Army transport Great Republic. Leaving the Union Army vessels at the mouth of the Mississippi to await the outcome of the impending naval effort against New Orleans, John P. Jackson joined the mortar boats for the intense bombardment of Forts St. Philip and Jackson. The cannonade began 18 April and lasted until Farragut's ships had safely passed the Confederate batteries 6 days later, dooming the Southern riverside strongholds and the metropolis which they had fought to protect. Sailing under fire past Vicksburg John P. Jackson again supported Farragut when he ran the gauntlet at Vicksburg, Mississippi almost two months later to meet Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis, who had battled south along the