USS Southfield was a double-ended, sidewheel steam gunboat of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was sunk in action against the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle during the Battle of Plymouth (1864). Southfield was built in 1857 at Brooklyn, New York by John English, and served as a ferry between South Ferry, New York, and St. George, Staten Island, until she was purchased by the U.S. Navy at New York City on December 16, 1861 from the New York Ferry Company. She was commissioned late in December 1861, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Charles F. W. Behm in command. Service history Battle of Roanoke Island, 1862 The double-ended gunboat joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Hampton Roads on the afternoon of January 2, 1862. On January 11, Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough ordered Southfield to proceed to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, the staging area for an expedition against Roanoke Island, which controlled navigation in the North Carolina sounds. The gunboat was detained at Hampton Roads awaiting troops to fill out her complement until about sunset on January 16 when she got underway south. She reached Hatteras Inlet the next day. Great labor was required to get Goldsborough's ships and the U.S. Army transports over Hatteras bar. The last vessel entered the sounds on February 5, enabling the expedition to get underway. The next morning, February 6, Goldsborough shifted his flag from the deep draft to Southfield since the double-ender was more nimble in shallow water. From her deck, he directed the attack on Confederate defenses, which began on the morning of February 7 with a heavy bombardment of Fort Bartow and was continued until dark. Late in the afternoon, Army troops under Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside landed under the cover of the naval gunfire. The attack was resumed on the morning of February 8 and pressed until about midafternoon, when the Union flag flew over Fort Bartow. Shortly thereafter, the Union ships managed to break through the Confederate obstruction and enter Albemarle Sound. The capture of Roanoke Island assured the Union forces free access to North Carolina's vast system of inland waterways and endangered the South's hold on much of North Carolina and Virginia. Norfolk, Virginia, a Southern strong point of special strategic importance, was flanked; and, in a few months, it was abandoned. Goldsborough was vigorous in exploiting the opening he had created by the conquest of Roanoke