Baltimore was built in 1848 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, captured on the Potomac River between Aquia Creek and Washington, D.C., by the Army on April 21, 1861, turned over to the Navy Department, and commissioned in April 1861, Lieutenant J. H. Russell in command.

During the American Civil War the Baltimore was used as an ordnance vessel between Washington Navy Yard and nearby ammunition depots.

[citation needed] On 19 May 1861, she ran aground at the mouth of the Potomac River and was attacked by a Confederate States Navy ram.

On May 9, 1862, she transported President Abraham Lincoln, and Secretaries Edwin M. Stanton and Salmon P. Chase, from Fort Monroe to Norfolk, Virginia in an attempt to get a close view of the destroyed Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.

Baltimore was turned over to Norfolk Navy Yard on May 22, 1865, and sold on June 24, 1865, at Washington DC.