It soon became closely associated with President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant while operating on the Potomac River, and was used for an unsuccessful peace conference in 1865 during the last year of the American Civil War.

[1][2][3] She was initially owned by Alfred Van Santvoord,[4] and later was one of four steamers operating for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co when that concern was organized in March 1886.

[2] On February 3, 1865, the Hampton Roads Conference took place on the River Queen in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate an end to the American Civil War.

[3] River Queen was sold by the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co. in 1893 [5] to the Mount Vernon & Marshall Hall Steamboat Co. of Washington, D.C.[2] During 1897–1900 the Record of American and Foreign Shipping lists the River Queen as a 181' long, 426-ton sidewheeler hailing out of New Bedford, owned by "Mt.

[2] In July 1911, newspapers reported the burning of the River Queen "to the water's edge" following the explosion of a signal lantern on board.