Hydrangea, a wooden steam tug, was built as Hippodame in 1862 at Buffalo, N.Y., and purchased by the Navy at New York, from her owner, C. TV. Copeland, 16 October 1863. She commissioned at New York Navy Yard 18 April 1864, Ens. C. W. Rogers in command.
Reporting to Hampton Roads for duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Hydrangea spent May towing monitors and acting as tender to Onondaga. She then took up station in the James River, where she acted as a tug and mail boat. Making two trips a day from Deep Bottom, near the front lines, to the large supply base at City Point, she helped support the Union efforts to break the military stalemate around Richmond. Hydrangea was then transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron 23 July 1864, and after repairing reported to Port Royal, S.C., 30 September. She was used as a blockading ship and tug inside the Charleston Bar until the end of the war. Hydrangea decommissioned at New York 1 September 1865, and was sold 25 October to S. and J. M. Flanagan. Redocumented Norman 4 January 1866, she returned to private service and was stranded and lost off Cape May, N.J., 17 November 1886.
