USS Wilderness (1864) - Renamed John A. Dix

Renamed John A. Dix

Ordered to New York for repairs on 2 September 1872, Wilderness reached New York City on the 19th. Records indicate that the ship was to be dismantled. The orders, dated 3 January 1873, are recorded as "carried into effect, 11 January." Now, whether or not this means that the name was retained and an entirely new ship was built is not entirely clear. In any event, she is listed as being ordered to New Orleans for duty on 3 July. Sailing on the 7th, she arrived at her new duty station on the 19th.

During the ship's period in a "limbo" of sorts, she was renamed John A. Dix on 11 June 1873. She apparently then operated in the Gulf of Mexico, out of New Orleans, through the autumn of 1879, when she was temporarily stationed at Mobile, Alabama.

The cutter operated in the Florida Keys in the spring of 1880 and into the early 1880s. Ordered to New York City for replacement of her boilers in the autumn of 1883, she arrived there on 30 October. Ordered back to Florida waters upon completion of those repairs on 1 February 1884, she departed New York City on 13 March and arrived at Key West nine days later. Resuming operations in the Florida Keys, John A. Dix cruised the Gulf of Mexico between Florida and Texas, from the Mississippi River to the Rio Grande, through the end of the 1880s.

Ordered to New Orleans, on 28 March 1891, John A. Dix arrived there on 7 April. Placed out of commission soon thereafter, the erstwhile side-wheel gunboat was sold on 18 May 1891 at Algiers, Louisiana.