USRC Harriet Lane (1857)

USRC Harriet Lane (1857)

Harriet Lane was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service and, on the outbreak of the American Civil War, a ship of the United States Navy and later Confederate States Navy. The craft was named after the niece of senator and later United States President, James Buchanan; during his presidency, she acted as First Lady. The cutter was christened and entered the water for the Revenue Service in 1859 out of New York City, and saw action during the Civil War at Fort Sumter, New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, and Virginia Point and was captured by the Confederates in 1863, whereupon she was converted to a trade ship. She was promptly recaptured by the Union forces, declared unfit for service, sold, and rechristened the Elliot Ritchie out of Philadelphia, only to be abandoned at sea in 1881.