The first USS Renshaw was a schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

Renshaw, a new schooner still unrigged, was captured by a boatcrew from in the Tar River

Tar River

The Tar River is a river that is approximately long, of northeast North Carolina flowing generally southeast to an estuary of Pamlico Sound. The Tar River becomes the tidal Pamlico River once it underpasses the U.S...

 some 5 miles above Washington, North Carolina

Washington, North Carolina

Washington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 9,744 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. The closest major city is Greenville, approximately 20 miles to the west....

, on 20 May 1862. The members of the expedition named the prize, taken without papers, for Louisiana's commanding officer, Comdr. Richard T. Renshaw

Richard T. Renshaw

Richard T. Renshaw was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.Renshaw entered the Navy as a midshipman on January 26, 1838, and was commissioned acting master September 10, 1851. Resigning June 29, 1852, Renshaw reentered the Navy at the beginning of the Civil War as a...

. R. T. Renshaw, soon renamed Renshaw so that she might also honor his brother, the late Comdr. William B. Renshaw

William B. Renshaw

William Bainbridge Renshaw was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.-Biography:...

, was placed in service as an ordnance hulk and formally purchased by the Navy from the Boston Prize Court on 28 October 1862.

She served in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron through the remainder of the Civil War and was sold at Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

on 12 August 1865.