USS Tigress (1861)

The second USS Tigress was a steamer chartered by the Union Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War.

Tigress was outfitted with a howitzer and ordered to patrol the Potomac River, which separated the Union capital of Washington, D.C. from the state of Virginia, which later became the capital of the Confederate States of America.

Chartered in Baltimore in 1861
Tigress -- a screw tugboat -- was chartered by the Union Navy at Baltimore, Maryland, from A. C. Hall sometime in the summer of 1861 prior to 20 August. At some now unknown date, she was purchased by the Navy. She departed Baltimore on 20 August, bound for the Washington Navy Yard.

Civil War operations
Tigress joined Capt Thomas T. Craven's Potomac River flotilla on 26 August and operated largely in patrol activities. On two occasions in early September, she carried captured runaway slaves to Capt. Craven's flagship, USS Resolute (1860). On the evening of 10 September, while Tigress was on patrol off Indian Head, Maryland, steamer State of Maine ran down the tug and sank her. The ship's wreck was subsequently raised; but, on 22 November 1862, she was deemed not worth the expense of repair.

Disposal after collision
Tigress was subsequently sold at public auction, with half of the proceeds going to her former owner, A. C. Hall, who had raised the wreck.