Early in the Civil War, as the Union Navy was expanding its fleet for the Herculean task of blockading the Confederate coast, the Federal Government purchased the side-wheeler at New York on 1 August 1861.

By 3:30 that afternoon, the wind had increased so greatly in violence that Du Pont signaled the commanding officer of the other ships that they were free to leave the formation and to proceed in whatever manner seemed most conducive to safety.

Two days were then spent in charting the nearby waters – from which all aids to navigation had been removed; in making reconnaissance probes to feel out the Confederate defensive forces and to locate their guns; and in seeing that the commander of each unit clearly understood his role in the forthcoming attack.

Having learned that most of its guns faced south, the flag officer had his main squadron steam by the Hilton Head shore along a counterclockwise, elliptical path which kept its warships out of effective range of the Confederate batteries.

Then, when it had reached a point beyond the traversing limit of these guns, this squadron began a turn to port along a wide arc which closed the shore as the Union ships opened fire on the fort and steamed back in the direction from which they had come.

Meanwhile, Du Pont's flanking squadron – including Augusta – followed the main group into the harbor and took station to the northwest of this ellipse in position to turn back any Southern warships which attempted to enter the fray.

Finally on the last day of November, Augusta aided Savannah, Flag, Pocahontas, Seneca, and Seminole in taking E. J. Waterman after she ran aground on Tybee Island.

The next day, 1 December, Du Pont ordered Augusta to Charleston for blockade duty, and she spent much of the next year and one-half as the flagship of the senior Union naval officer off that strongly defended city, the "birthplace of secession."

Laden with sugar and molasses, that 166 long tons (169 t) schooner of Nassau, New Providence, had departed Trinidad de Cuba ostensibly bound for Baltimore, Maryland under English colors.

While Planter had been moored to a wharf in Charleston and her captain was ashore, her pilot – a slave named Robert Smalls – had embarked his family and a few friends and quietly slipped out to sea.

When Planter had passed beyond range of the last Southern gun, Smalls lowered her Confederate colors and hoisted a white flag, before steaming up to the Union clipper ship Onward and surrendering.

On 18 June, Du Pont ordered Parrott to move to Wassau Sound where Augusta labored to close that approach to Savannah until Flag relieved her at the end of the first week of July.

Recommissioned on 31 October, Augusta received orders the next day to get underway for a cruise "... via Bermuda and St. Thomas through the Windward Islands and along the coast of South America ..." to seek out and to destroy Capt.

On 5 November, Augusta was assigned a different mission, convoy duty for a group of transports which were to carry Army troops to the Gulf of Mexico to reinforce those already there under Major General Benjamin F. Butler.

Her master had urged that the Navy henceforth escort Ariel and her sister mail steamers, especially those heading north from the isthmus with shipments of bullion from the California gold fields.

Unadilla had forced her aground while that blockade runner was attempting to slip into Charleston with a cargo of arms and ammunition as well as an unrecorded number of large rifled naval guns and two powerful steam engines slated to be installed in Southern ironclads then under construction.

In the early morning fog of the last day of January, the Confederate ironclads CSS Chicora and Palmetto State steamed out of Charleston and attacked the Union blockading fleet.

But for occasional short runs to Port Royal to replenish her provisions and to refill her coal bunkers or to tow vessels to other points within the limits of her squadron, Augusta labored into the summer to tighten the blockade of Charleston during the ensuing months.

Then, on 5 July, Du Pont – who was to be relieved of command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren – ordered Parrott "... to prepare the Augusta for sea, as I propose to go to the Delaware in your vessel."

As a result, soon after she arrived at the New York Navy Yard on the last day of July, Augusta was decommissioned for the long overdue complete overhaul that had first been interrupted by CSS Alabama's antics in the North Atlantic some nine months before.

Following brief blockade duty off Wilmington, North Carolina, she returned to Hampton Roads to prepare to escort the monitor Tecumseh to the Gulf of Mexico for Adm. Farragut's forthcoming attack on Mobile Bay.

The decision to send two escorts to tow Tecumseh proved to be a wise one, since all three ships suffered engine trouble during the voyage; but, by helping each other, the trio finally reached Pensacola on 28 July.

Augusta remained at that port undergoing repairs to her machinery while the monitor moved to Mobile Bay to participate in the historic battle on 5 August which brought her short career to a tragic close.

Before this work could be accomplished, the Navy Department became aware of renewed and intensified threats to the security of the California mail steamers from Confederate cruisers and from groups of Southern passengers who were plotting to seize these ships.

To help in countering these dangers, Augusta – the only vessel available at New York for convoy duty – departed that port on the morning of 6 November in the wake of North Star, about two and one-half days after that steamer had sailed for Panama.

First, it carried Mr. Fox to Russia as President Andrew Johnson's personal representative and as the bearer of a resolution of Congress congratulating Tsar Alexander II for his escape from the attack of a nihilist assassin.

Secondly, the cruise was made to show the world's naval powers the Nation's innovation in warship design, the monitor, and to demonstrate its ability to operate in the open sea.

The two remaining warships headed for England on 21 June; and, during the ensuing year visited most of the maritime countries of Europe and, in every case, received enthusiastically friendly hospitality from royalty and commoners alike.

Lavish entertainment on board the royal yacht, sightseeing tours, and an inspection of the Russian Fleet filled the ensuing days until Augusta and Miantonomoh got underway again on 15 September and headed for Stockholm.

They welcomed in the new year, 1867, at Málaga, Spain, and spent the next four and one-half months visiting the traditionally popular ports of call in the Mediterranean before departing Gibraltar on 15 May and heading home, via the Canary Islands, the Cape Verdes, Barbados, and the Bahamas.