Columbia was built at Charleston, South Carolina in 1864 to a design by John L. Porter.

She was launched in March 1864 and entered service later in that year.

When the Union forces took possession of Charleston on 18 February 1865, they found Columbia near Fort Moultrie; she had run on a sunken wreck and been damaged on 12 January 1865.

The ironclad already had her cannon and some armor plating removed; ship-worms were already at work boring into her wooden hull.

She was raised on 26 April and was towed by USS Vanderbilt to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she arrived on 25 May 1865.