USS Snowdrop, originally named Albert DeGroat and occasionally referred to as A. DeGroat was a screw tug

Tug

Tuğ is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan....

 built in 1863 at Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

. Albert DeGroat was purchased by the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 at New York City on 16 October 1863; renamed Snowdrop; and was fitted out at the New York Navy Yard.

After service at New York into the spring of 1864, Snowdrop was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and ordered to Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

 on 2 May. She served in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron through the last two years of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and apparently operated exclusively in the Hampton Roads area. After peace was restored, she remained at the Norfolk Navy Yard through the reconstruction years. She was ordered to New York sometime in the second half of 1883 and was broken up at the New York Navy Yard in 1884.