Soon after her commissioning, Violet was dispatched to Newport News, Virginia, for duty as a tugboat with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

On 27 March, she received orders to proceed to the blockade off Cape Fear Inlet, near Wilmington, North Carolina, and finally arrived for duty in early April after a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, had forced her return to Hampton Roads, Virginia, in a sinking condition on 28 March.

Her orders were to maintain a vigilant nighttime and foul weather guard over the ironclad and be prepared to tow the warship to safety or run down any enemy vessels in the event of a Confederate attack.

There, on the night of 7 August, she ran aground while proceeding to her inshore station, close to the shoal off Western Bar, North Carolina.

Finally, seeing that the situation was hopeless, Violet's captain and crew fired her magazine to prevent capture, and the vessel blew up on the morning of 8 August 1864.