Tucker was appointed a Commander in the Virginia Navy, with rank from the date of the commission in the United States Navy which he had resigned. He was at first assigned by the Governor to the defense of James river, but in a short time was ordered to assume command of the steamer _Patrick Henry_.
When Virginia became one of the Confederate States, all the officers of the Virginia Navy were transferred to the Confederate States Navy, with the same rank they had held in the United States Navy. The _Patrick Henry_ was also transferred by the State of Virginia to the Confederate States. This vessel was a paddle-wheel steamer of about 1,400 tons burthen; she was called the _Yorktown_ before the war, and was one of a line of steamers running between Richmond and New York; she was reputed to be a fast boat, and deserved the reputation.
When Virginia seceded this vessel was in James river, and, together with her sister steamer _Jamestown_, of the same line, was seized by the authorities of the State, taken up to the Rockett's wharf, at Richmond, and the command conferred, as has been said, upon Commander Tucker; this assignment of duty being afterwards confirmed by the Secretary of the Confederate States Navy. Naval Constructor Joseph Pearse, with a number of mechanics from the Norfolk Navy Yard, who had been brought to Richmond for the purpose, commenced the necessary alterations, which had previously been determined upon, and in a short time the passenger steamer _Yorktown_ was converted into the very creditable man-of-war _Patrick Henry_, of 12 guns and one hundred and fifty officers and men. Lieutenant William Llewellyn Powell, who soon afterwards resigned from the Navy, entered the Army as Colonel of Artillery, and died a Brigadier-General at Fort Morgan before its fall, was her executive officer while she was being fitted out, and to him, as well as to Constructor Joseph Pearse, much credit is due for having made her as serviceable as she was for purposes of war. Her spar-deck cabins were removed, and her deck strengthened so as to enable it to bear a battery. Her boilers were slightly protected by iron plates one inch in thickness. V-shaped iron shields on the spar-deck, forward and aft of her engines, afforded some protection to the machinery, but none to the walking beams, which rose far above the hurricane-deck. It is probable that Lieutenant Powell suggested the first American attempt to protect steamers with iron armor, unless the Stevens floating-battery, which was so long building at Hoboken for the United States, was such an attempt. It is known that Powell forwarded, during the summer of 1861, plans to the Confederate Navy Department for converting river craft and canal boats into iron-clad gunboats.