The first USS Pocahontas, a screw steamer built at Medford, Massachusetts in 1852 as City of Boston, and purchased by the Navy at Boston, Massachusetts on 20 March 1855, was the first United States Navy ship to be named for Pocahontas, the Algonquian wife of Virginia colonist John Rolfe. She was originally commissioned as USS Despatch – the second U.S. Navy ship of that name – on 17 January 1856, with Lieutenant T. M. Crossan in command, and was recommissioned and renamed in 1860, seeing action in the American Civil War. As Pocahontas, one of her junior officers was Alfred Thayer Mahan, who would later achieve international fame as a military writer and theorist of naval power. Service as USS Despatch Despatch, carrying naval passengers and cargo, departed New York on 4 April for the Gulf of Mexico, returned on 12 June, and decommissioned on 4 July for installation of improved boilers and condensers. The ship was in custody of the U.S. Coast Survey Service from January–March 1857. Recommissioned on 1 March 1858, Despatch departed New York on the 6th to cruise along the Gulf coast seeking ships attempting to smuggle slaves into the nation. She headed north in December, arriving Norfolk, Virginia on the 20th where, following a run to Washington, D.C. to tow to Norfolk, she decommissioned on 2 January 1859. Rebuilt and renamed Pocahontas, 1860 Rebuilt at the Norfolk Navy Yard, the ship was enlarged to , reclassified a second-class sloop, renamed Pocahontas, the first U.S. Navy ship of that name, on 27 January 1860, and recommissioned on 19 March 1860, Commander S. F. Hazzard in command. The revitalized warship got under way for the Gulf on the 27th. Arriving Vera Cruz on 16 April, she joined the Home Squadron and cruised along the Mexican coast protecting American citizens and commerce and carrying diplomatic despatches. Fort Sumter and early Civil War Departing Vera Cruz during the secession crisis, Pocahontas arrived Hampton Roads on 12 March, and on 5 April was assigned to the small joint Army-Navy force sent to Charleston Harbor to provision the federal garrison at Fort Sumter. However, she did not reach Charleston Harbor until the afternoon of the 13th, as Major Robert Anderson was surrendering the beleaguered U.S. fort. The next day, she helped evacuate the Union troops and returned north. During the first months of the Civil War, Pocahontas patrolled the Potomac and