Robert E. Lee was originally the merchant ship Giraffe, a schooner-rigged, iron-hulled, oscillating-engined paddle-steamer with two stacks, built by J&G Thomson's Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard at Govan in Glasgow, Scotland, and launched on 16 May 1860 as a fast Glasgow-Belfast packet for the J.

[1][2] Alexander Collie & Co. of Manchester acquired her for their blockade-running fleet, but were persuaded by renowned blockade-runner Lieutenant John Wilkinson (CSN) to sell her to the Confederate States Navy for the same £32,000 just paid.

Her first voyage for the Confederacy was into Old Inlet, Wilmington, North Carolina in January 1863 with valuable munitions and 26 Scottish lithographers, eagerly awaited by the Confederate Government bureau of engraving and printing.

Thus Wilkinson was in Canada and Gayle commanding when Robert E. Lee's luck ran out on November 9, 1863, after 21 voyages in 10 months carrying out over 7,000 bales of cotton, returning with munitions invaluable to the Confederacy.

Robert E. Lee was condemned as a prize at Boston, Massachusetts, acquired by the United States Navy and placed in commission on June 29, 1864, as USS Fort Donelson, with Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Thomas Pickering in command.