High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Harriet Lane was a revenue cutter of the United States Revenue Cutter Service and, on the outbreak of the American Civil War, a ship of the United States Navy and later Confederate States Navy. She was named after the niece of senator and later United States President, James Buchanan. She was christened and entered the water for the revenue service in 1859 out of New York City, and saw action during the civil war at Fort Sumter, New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, Virginia Point and was captured by the Confederates in 1863 whereupon she was reverted to a trade ship and promptly recaptured by the Union forces, declared unfit for service sold and rechristened the Elliot Ritchie out of Philadelphia, only to be abandoned at sea in 1881.