Release sailed November 1856 to Demerara, British Guiana, to pick up sugar cane cuttings for the Department of the Interior.

Later in 1859 she served as supply ship for the Paraguay expedition sent to Asunción to demand indemnity and apology from the Paraguayan Government for the firing on Water Witch in 1858.

On 5 April 1861, Release sailed to Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida, to act as supply ship for the Gulf Blockading Squadron.

She was sent to Gibraltar on 30 September 1862 to meet USS Kearsarge and then directed to Algeciras, Morocco to watch the Confederate raider Sumter.

From August 1863 to the end of hostilities, Release served as an ordnance storeship, based at Beaufort, North Carolina, for ships blockading the southern coast from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Norfolk, Virginia, either at sea delivering stores to the blockaders at their stations or at Beaufort tied up as a stores hulk.