The new 2,100 ton steam screw sloop-of-war was the largest vessel built to that time at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine.  Just under 230 feet long, with a crew of 160, she was commissioned in January, 1863 and joined the Atlantic Blockading Fleet. She also spent the last months of the war hunting Confederate raiders off the European coast.  The Sacramento was lost when she hit a reef off the coast of India on June 19, 1867.  (By John Osborne)  

The French ambassador to Washington, Henri Mercier, invited the President to tour his navy's recently arrived dispatch steamer Gassendi at the Washington Navy Yard. Secretary of State Seward urged acceptance since relations with France needed a warming after the Trent Affair.  Also, the Gassendi and its captain, Jules Gauithier, had witnessed the recent naval battle of ironclads off Norfolk. The party was received with full honors, drank champagne, and toured the vessel, the first time an American president had been aboard a foreign warship.  (By John Osborne)

When Brigadier General Jesse Reno's expedition to destroy the locks of the canal system in Camden County, North Carolina failed, area U.S. Navy chief Commander S.J. Rowan ordered a mission to block the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal.  Federal vessels Lockwood, Whitelhead, and Putnam under Lieutenant Charles Flusser, towed a captured Confederate schooner, the Emma Slade, to the mouth of the canal and sank it there.  Landing parties then worked for two days to destroy canal banks and fill the canal itself with debris. (By John Osborne)

Brigadier General Jesse Reno was dispatched, with around two thousand Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts infantry, to destroy the Dismal Swamp Canal locks around South Mills, North Carolina to prevent the movement of shipping into the Albermarle Sound.  They occupied Elizabeth City the night before but were met by Georgia infantrymen under Colonel Ambrose Wright.  The Union troops drove the enemy from the field but were nevertheless forced to withdraw, their mission unfulfilled.  (By John Osborne) 

The day before, at dawn, artillery of Brigadier General John G. Parke's division opened fire on thirty year old Fort Macon, a main strongpoint defending the channel to the port of Beaufort, North Carolina.  By late afternoon, extensive destruction forced commander Collonel Moses White to ask for terms of surrender.  These were agreed overnight and troops of the Fifth Rhode Island Infantry occupied the fort the next morning.  (By John Osborne)

Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside were closing on Beaufort, North Carolina.  At dawn, artillery of Brigadier General John Grubb Parke's division opened fire on thirty year old Fort Macon, a main strongpoint defending the port's channel.  By late afternoon, extensive destruction forced commander Collonel Moses White to ask for terms of surrender.  Rhode Island troops occupied the fort the next morning.  (By John Osborne)