Paraguay Expedition and Home Fleet, 1858–1861

The Paraguay Squadron (Harper's Weekly, New York, 16 October 1858).

Her first cruise took the frigate to Montevideo and Buenos Aires in October 1858 with the Paraguay expedition, a task force commanded by Flag Officer William B. Shubrick, after that country's firing on USS Water Witch. She conveyed Commissioner Bowlin and served as flagship during the voyage to South America, but was not officially considered part of the expedition fleet, as she was not designed to act against Paraguay, not being able to ascend the river.^[1] The expedition won the United States an indemnity, an apology, and a renewed treaty. Sabine then operated out of New York with the Home Fleet until July 1861.

Civil War, 1861–1865

USS Sabine

14-year-old Sailor J.F.W. Mitchell of the U.S.S. Sabine in uniform, who enlisted in the Navy in March 1865. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Through July and August, she was out of commission at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Recommissioning on 30 August, she was ordered to join the Atlantic Blockading Squadron on 9 September.

The rescue of Major Reynold's battalion of marines from the foundering steamer Governor November 1861

During the Civil War, Sabine was actively employed along the east coast searching for Confederate raiders. She participated in the relief and reinforcement of Fort Pickens, Florida, in April 1861, under command of Capt. Adams; the rescue of 500 marines and the crew of chartered troop transport Governor during a violent storm off South Carolina on 2 and 3 November 1861; the search for Vermont in March 1862, after the ship-of-the-line had been badly damaged by a storm while sailing to Port Royal, South Carolina; and the hunt for CSS Alabama in October 1862 and CSS Tacony in June 1863.

Sabine returned to New York for blockade duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron until ordered in August 1864 to Norfolk, Virginia as a training ship for Navy apprentices and landsmen.

Training ship, 1865–1877

After the war, she was transferred to New London, Connecticut for the same purpose until 1868. In 1867, an apprentice on Sabine, Frank Du Moulin, was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing a crewmate who had fallen from the rigging into the water.^[2] In 1869 and 1870, the ship conducted midshipman training cruises to European and Mediterranean ports. In 1871 Sabine was repaired at Boston; and, from 1872 to 1876, she served as a receiving ship at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1877, she was laid up until she was sold on 23 September 1883 at Portsmouth to J.L. Snow of Rockland, Maine.