Built to Constructor John L. Porter's plans, similar to those of CSS North Carolina, she had been laid down and launched at the foot of Church Street, completed at the shipyard of J. L. Cassidy & Sons.
On May 6, she emerged from Cape Fear River accompanied by CSS Yadkin and CSS Equator and inconclusively engaged six Federal blockaders, including the USS Britannia and the USS Nansemond, off New Inlet, North Carolina. When the six reappeared the following day, Raleigh hastily withdrew up river, struck Wilmington Bar and "broke her back." Her iron plating was salvaged.
In 1994 the wreck was investigated by the North Carolina State Underwater Archaeology Unit with help from students of East Carolina University.