Tulip was outfitted with heavy guns and was used by the Navy as a gunboat to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy in order to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

Henry Ward ordered the constructions of 3 steamers, one of them being Chih Kiang (Chinese: 浙江; pinyin: Zhèjiāng; lit.

[1] Renamed Tulip and refitted for service as a tugboat and gunboat, the screw steamer joined the Potomac River Flotilla in August 1863.

She initially performed towing duties at the Washington Navy Yard, and then served with the flotilla in operations against Confederate forces in the Rappahannock River.

Not long after departing from St. Inigoes, Maryland, her engineers, against all orders, began supplying steam to the starboard boiler.