[1] Originally the Richmond iron steam tug James Gray, built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1858, Lady Davis was purchased in March 1861 by Governor Francis Wilkinson Pickens of South Carolina, who armed her and placed in command Lieutenant William Gaillard Dozier, South Carolina Navy, with orders to thwart reinforcement of Fort Sumter by Union troops.

B. Thompson, a full-rigged ship of 980 tons and a crew of 23 out of Brunswick, Maine, whom she encountered off Savannah while on an expedition seeking the U.S. armed brig Perry.

Captain Stephen Elliott, Jr., CSA, happened to be on board and acted as a pilot during the capture and afterward, while his men claimed to have helped bring in the prize.

Although her engines were transferred to CSS Palmetto State late in 1862, well built iron hulls were in great demand and she was able to continue her successful career as a privately owned blockade runner out of Charleston, South Carolina.

With the occupation of Charleston in 1865 by Federal forces, Lady Davis was captured and turned over to the Light House Board by Admiral John A. Dahlgren, who praised her hull, while noting that she was, again, minus her machinery, whose disposition is not recorded.