On 17 January 1865, "Canonicus", towed by the steam sloop-of-war , was ordered to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and arrived at Charleston on 19 January. The following month, "Canonicus" and the monitors and captured a blockade runner that had run aground on Sullivan's Island on the night of 18 February. The ship, towed by the steamer , together with "Monadnock" and other ships steamed to Havana, Cuba in late May in search of the CSS "Stonewall" and arrived there after the ship had been turned over to the Spanish authorities by her captain. The two monitors were the first American ironclads to arrive at a foreign port and returned to the United States on 6 June.