Built by William Collyer in New York City, Nashville was ordered by New York merchants and launched September 22, 1853. Her maiden voyage ran from New York to Charleston, South Carolina, under the name United States Mail Steamship Nashville with mail and passengers aboard. Her bottom was sheathed in copper in 1854 to prevent marine growth, she was overhauled in 1859, and she received new boilers in June 1860. As the Civil War began, she entered Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, and was purchased by the newly formed Confederate States Navy for $100,000. She became the first vessel commissioned by the Confederate States Government and the first to fly a Confederate flag in England. After capturing and burning the Union ship Harvey Birch, she entered South Hampton England on November 21, 1861. Later renamed the Privateer Rattlesnake, her blockade-running career ended on February 28, 1863, when she was trapped in the Ogeechee by a sandbar at low tide, beyond the protection of Fort McAllister's guns, and the Union ironclad Montauk sank her within an hour.