Editing CSS Teaser (section)

==USS ''Teaser''==
Later that summer, ''Teaser'' was taken into the United States Navy and was assigned to the [[Potomac Flotilla]]. With the exception of three brief deployments elsewhere, USS ''Teaser'' [[Wiktionary:Ply|plied]] the waters of the [[Potomac River]] from [[Alexandria, Virginia]], south to [[Point Lookout, Maryland|Point Lookout]], [[Maryland]], to enforce the [[blockade]] by interdicting a thriving trade in [[contraband]] between the Maryland and Virginia shores.

On September 22, she captured [[schooner]] ''Southerner'' in the [[Coan River]]. On  October 19, while operating in the vicinity of [[Piney Point, Maryland|Piney Point]] in [[St. Mary's County, Maryland]], she captured two [[smuggler]]s and their boat as they were nearing the exit of Herring Creek and preparing to cross the river to Virginia. On November 2, near the mouth of the [[Rappahannock River]], the tug surprised three men attempting to violate the blockade in a [[canoe]]. ''Teaser'' took them prisoner and turned their contraband over to pro-Union Virginians living on [[Gwynn's Island]]. Four days later in [[Chesapeake Bay]], ''Teaser'' took the cargo-less [[sloop]] ''Grapeshot'' and captured her three-man crew.

By December 1862, she had moved to the Rappahannock River with other units of the Potomac Flotilla to support General [[Ambrose Burnside]]'s thrust toward Richmond. On December 10, she exchanged shots with a Confederate battery located on the southern shore of the river about three miles below [[Port Royal, Virginia]]. After Burnside's bloody rebuff at [[Fredericksburg, Virginia]], on December 13, ''Teaser'' and her colleagues returned to their anti-smuggling patrol along the Potomac.

''Teaser'' joined {{USS|Primrose|1863|6}} to make March 1863 an active month. On March 24, the two ships sent a boat expedition to reconnoiter [[Pope's Creek, Virginia]]. The landing party found two boats used for smuggling and collected information from Union sympathizers in the area. Almost a week later, on the night of March 30—March 31, they dispatched a three-boat party to [[Monroe's Creek, Virginia]]. The previous day, a Federal [[cavalry]] detachment had surprised a smuggler in the area; and, though the troops captured his goods, the man himself escaped. Boats from ''Teaser'' and ''Primrose'' succeeded where the Union horsemen had failed, and they gathered some intelligence on other contrabanders as well.

In April 1863, ''Teaser'' left the Potomac for duty with Acting [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear Admiral]] [[Samuel Phillips Lee]]'s [[North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]] at Hampton Roads. On April 17, she joined {{USS|Alert|1861|6}} and {{USS|Coeur de Lion|1861|6}} in an expedition up the [[Nansemond River]] west of [[Norfolk, Virginia]]. However, she ran aground, damaged her machinery, and had to retire from the venture.

By mid-summer, ''Teaser'' was back in action on the Potomac. On the night of July 27, she captured two smugglers with a boatload of tobacco in the mouth of the Mattawoman Creek just south of [[Indian Head, Maryland]]. She destroyed the boat and sent the prisoners and contraband north to the [[Washington Navy Yard]]. During the night of October 7, ''Teaser'' and another flotilla ship (extant records do not identify her companion) noticed signalling between [[Mathias Point, Virginia]], and the Maryland shore. The two ships shelled the woods at Mathias Point, but took no action against the signallers on the Maryland shore other than to urge upon the [[United States Army]]'s district [[provost marshal]] the necessity of constant vigilance.

On January 5, 1864, ''Teaser'' and {{USS|Yankee|1861|6}} landed a force of men at [[Nomini, Virginia]], to investigate a rumor that the Southerners had hidden a large [[lighter (barge)|lighter]] and a [[skiff]] capable of boating 80 men there. The force, commanded by ''Teaser's'' commanding officer, Acting [[Ensign (rank)|Ensign]] Sheridan, found both boats, destroyed the lighter, and captured the skiff. During the landing, Confederate soldiers appeared on the heights above Nomini, but the gunboats dampened their curiosity with some well-placed cannon shots.

In April, ''Teaser'', ''Yankee'', {{USS|Anacostia|1856|6}}, {{USS|Fuchsia|1863|6}}, and {{USS|Resolute|1860|6}} accompanied an Army expedition to [[Machodoc Creek, Virginia]]. At 5:00 A.M. on April 13, the five ships cleared the [[St. Marys River (Maryland)|St. Mary's River]] in company with the Army's steamer [[USAT Long Branch|USAT ''Long Branch'']] with a battalion of soldiers under the command of General [[Edward W. Hinks]]. ''Long Branch'' landed her troops at about 8:00 A.M. while the five ships covered the operation. A contingent of Confederate cavalry appeared on the southern bank of the Machodoc, but retired when ''Teaser'' and ''Anacostia'' sent four armed boat crews ashore. The landing party netted a prisoner, probably a smuggler, and a large quantity of tobacco. By April 14, General Hinks' troops reembarked in ''Long Branch'' and headed for Point Lookout. ''Anacostia'' accompanied the Army steamer while the other four warships investigated [[Currioman Bay]] and Nomini. They returned to [[St. Mary's, Virginia]], that afternoon to resume patrols.

During the summer of 1864, ''Teaser'' was called upon to leave the Potomac once more. On this occasion, the Union forces needed her guns to help defend strategic bridges across the rivers at the head of Chesapeake Bay near [[Baltimore, Maryland]], against [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]] [[Jubal Anderson Early|Jubal A. Early]]'s raiders. On July 10, she departed the lower Potomac, rounded Point Lookout, and headed up the Chesapeake Bay. That night, she had to put into the [[Patuxent River]] because of heavy winds and leaks in her hull. Before dawn the following morning, she continued up the bay. During the forenoon, the leaks became progressively worse and, by the time she arrived off [[Annapolis, Maryland]], she had to remove her exhaust pipe for temporary repairs. Early that evening, ''Teaser'' reached Baltimore where she put in for additional repairs.

The gunboat did not reach her destination, the bridge over the [[Gunpowder River]], until late on July 12. She was too late; the bridge had already been burned. She returned to Baltimore immediately to report on the bridge and to pick up arms and provisions for the vessels stationed in the Gunpowder River. When she arrived back at the bridge, she found orders to return to the Potomac awaiting her. ''Teaser'' departed the northern reaches of the Chesapeake and reported back to the Potomac Flotilla at [[St. Inigoes, Virginia]], on the St. Mary's River in late afternoon on April 14.

For the remainder of the war, ''Teaser'' and her flotilla-mates plied the Potomac and contributed to the gradual economic strangulation which brought the South to its knees by April 1865. Less than two months after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at [[Appomattox, Virginia]], ''Teaser'' was decommissioned at the [[Washington Navy Yard]] on June 2. Sold at [[public auction]] at Washington to Mr. J. Bigler on June 25, the tug was re-documented as ''York River'' on July 2, 1865, and she served commercially until 1878.