USS Stars and Stripes was a 407-ton steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy and put to use by the Union during the American Civil War.
Stars and Stripes served the Union Navy primarily as a screw gunboat, and as a tugboat when necessary, in the blockade of the rivers and ports of the Confederate States of America.
Service history
Civil War operations
Stars and Stripes—a screw steamer built at Mystic, Connecticut, by Charles Mallory as a speculation for C. S. Bushnell—was purchased by the Navy at New York City from C. S. Bushnell on 27 July 1861; was fitted out for naval service at the New York Navy Yard and was commissioned there on 19 September 1861, Lt. Reed Werden in command.
Assigned to the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Stars and Stripes reached Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 26 September. Two days later, she was ordered to tow schooners of the Stone Fleet to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. She arrived off Hatteras Inlet on 1 October and operated in that vicinity for the next few months. While there, the , , and were subordinate to the orders of her captain.