USS Siren (1862)

USS Siren (1862) was a 214-ton steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War.

The Navy outfitted Siren with two 24-pounder howitzers, for use in bombardment, and assigned her to operations on the Mississippi River where Union forces were attempting to maintain control of the river in order to split the Confederate States of America in two.

Built in Virginia in 1862
Siren -- a wooden-hulled, stern-wheel steamer built as White Rose in 1862 at Parkersburg, Virginia -- was purchased by the Navy on 11 March 1864 at Cincinnati, Ohio; and was placed in service as a temporary receiving ship at Mound City, Illinois. Subsequently fitted out as a “tinclad” gunboat, the ship was commissioned on 30 August 1864 for service on the Mississippi River between Columbus, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee.

Assigned to the Mississippi River blockade
However, before she could proceed downstream to her station, she was ordered, on 23 September, to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to guard that area against a reportedly imminent attack by Confederate troops under Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby.

When the alarm proved groundless, she steamed downstream to her station as a ship of the Fourth District of the Mississippi Squadron. Into February 1865, she served on the river protecting Union shipping and preventing Confederate traffic across the river.

Siren declared “not seaworthy”
On 14 February, Siren was ordered to proceed to New Orleans, Louisiana, for temporary duty with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron during mop-up operations in Mobile Bay. However, upon her inspection at New Orleans, it was decided that she would require such "extensive repairs, alterations, and adjustments" before she would be ready for service at sea, that she was promptly returned to the Mississippi Squadron.

She served on the rivers through the end of the Civil War. Among her varied duties during the first months after the Confederacy collapsed, was the task of accepting the surrender of Southern troops and of disarming the region.

Post-war deactivation and subsequent career
Siren  was decommissioned at Mound City, Illinois, on 12 August 1865 and sold at public auction there on 17 August 1865 to G. E. Warner, E. S. Mills, et al. Redocumented as White Rose on 3 October 1865, the ship served in river commerce until abandoned in 1867.