Reliance was a sidewheel steamer purchased by Rear Admiral Farragut at New Orleans 5 March 1863, to tow supplies upriver. She was present below Port Hudson in early March as Farragut prepared for his gallant passage of the batteries 14 March, and was subsequently sent to Berwick Bay, La., to take part in the relentless pressure of the blockade which strangled the South.
She was renamed Hollyhock in June or July 1863, and for nearly 2 years she served as a tender and supplyship based at New Orleans. On this vital service she plied the river from New Orleans to the mouth. Hollyhock did participate, however, in one of the most daring episodes of the war, the escape of the Confederate ram under Lt. Charles W. Read from the Red River. Read's ship, William. H. Wobb, ran the blockade of the mouth of the Red River 23 April, and sped toward New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, eventually hoping to make Havana. As William H. Webb passed New Orleans, all available ships including Hollyhock gave chase. The fleeing Webb finally encountered Richmond, sent upriver to stop her, and ran aground on the bank to avoid capture.
Hollyhock continued to serve at New Orleans until she was sold there to Mr. P. Bennett 5 October 1865.
