The first USS Columbia of the United States Navy to be commissioned was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing frigate, built at the Washington Navy Yard and carrying 54 guns[1] (an earlier Columbia was destroyed during the burning of Washington in 1814 whilst it was still under construction).

Except for a cruise as flagship of the Home Squadron from January 1853 – March 1855, she remained at Norfolk until the outbreak of the American Civil War.

During her 1854-1855 cruise as flagship of the Home Squadron, the USS Columbia crew suffered repeated outbreaks of disease such as Smallpox, Cholera and Yellow Fever, see thumbnail image of 27 March 1855 petition from the frigate crew to Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin.

A separate report (exert below) of 19 March 1855, from Home Squadron Commander, Commodore John Thomas Newton to the Secretary Dobbin explained his decision to return to Norfolk Virginia and to seek medical care at the Naval Hospital for his crew.

[1] Columbia was scuttled and burned by Union forces to avoid her capture by Confederates upon the surrender of Norfolk Navy Yard on 21 April 1861.