Alfred Robb – a wooden-hulled, stern-wheel steamboat built at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1860 – operated on the Ohio River and the other navigable streams of the Mississippi watershed system until acquired by the Confederate Government at some now-unknown date during the first year of the Civil War for use as a transport.

Nevertheless, Alfred Robb remained safe and active until Lieutenant William Gwin – who commanded the side-wheel gunboat Tyler – seized her at Florence, Alabama on 21 April 1862 while being piloted by Billy N Smith (Hollar-Dam) of Paducah, Kentucky.

Since the Confederacy still held much of the Mississippi River, it was impossible to send Alfred Robb to any Federal court then hearing admiralty cases.

Hence, after the prize descended the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers to Cairo, Illinois, she was fitted out there for service in the Western Flotilla without prior adjudication.

Upon reaching that small riverside port, Robb reported her arrival to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck and began almost three years of protecting and supporting Union troops who were fighting to control the land between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains.

To check the advance of these Union forces which were penetrating deep into the Confederate heartland, defenders of the South struck back with guerrilla attacks, cavalry raids, and prolonged counter thrusts by whole armies.

One of the highlights of her service occurred on the night of 3 February 1863 when she joined several other Union warships in beating off a fierce attack by some 4,500 Confederate troops against the small Federal garrison in Fort Donelson, Tennessee.

Sold at public auction there to H. A. Smith on 17 August 1865, the ship was redocumented as Robb on 9 September 1865 and served on the Mississippi River system until 1873.