USS Brockenborough
USS Brockenborough was a sloop captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy primarily as a ship's tender and also as a gunboat stationed off Confederate ports to enforce the Union blockade which prevented trade with foreign countries. Brockenborough was wrecked in a storm and her crew burned her to prevent capture. Captured of Brockenborough On October 16, 1862, the commanding officer of the Union steamer — Acting Lieutenant Edward Y. McCauley — ordered Acting Master Robert B. Smith to lead a reconnaissance expedition up the Apalachicola River. During the ensuing operation, Smith's boats exchanged fire with Southerners ashore and signaled for help. That gunboat's launch brought a howitzer into the fray, "…cleared the banks of the guerrillas," and enabled the Union boats to continue on upstream. A short distance past the town of Apalachicola, Florida, Smith found a sailing ship which had grounded inside the mouth of a creek. She proved to be G. L. Brockenborough, a sloop carrying 64 bales of cotton. Her master and a single passenger were still on board. The Union sailors refloated the vessel and took her to Key West, Florida, where she was condemned