The paddle steamer Nashville, 1,800 tons, was the first cruiser or commerce raider employed by the Confederate Southern States during the American Civil War. Built as a passenger packet for the North Atlantic service in 1853, she actually spent much of her civilian career coasting between Charleston, South Carolina, and New York, before being acquired by the Confederate Government in 1861. Realising her deck beams were not strong enough to support the guns she would need to arm her properly as a commerce raider, Nashville was despatched to England for strengthening and ran out of Charleston, through the Union navy's blockade, during the night of 26 October. On 19 November, at the western end of the English Channel, she sighted the New York-owned clipper Harvey Birch homeward bound from Le Havre, and immediately ran up the Union ensign. The Harvey Birch was completely taken in by the ruse, allowed Nashville to close on her and was captured with only a single warning shot fired. After taking off her crew and what supplies he could use, Nashville's captain ordered her burned and the clipper became the first significant victim of the Confederacy at sea.