She served the Union Navy's war against the Confederate States of America in a variety of ways: as a tugboat, a patrol gunboat, a dispatch boat, a salvage ship, a minesweeper, and as a small (202 ton) transport.

She arrived in Mississippi Sound on 5 August, the day of Admiral David Farragut's victory in Mobile Bay, and spent the remainder of the month operating as a dispatch vessel between New Orleans, Louisiana, and that historic body of water.

Tritonia resumed blockade duty, towing the captured schooner Medora to New Orleans, Louisiana, on 15 December for adjudication.

On 29 January 1866, Tritonia carried a company of United States Army troops up the Tombigbee River and recaptured the steamer Belfast which had been seized by guerrillas and taken up that stream.

Tritonia was sold at public auction at New York City on 5 October 1866; redocumented as Belle Brown on 19 November; and lost at sea in 1880.