The first USS Undine was a sternwheel steamer and tinclad warship that served with both the Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Built in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Ben Gaylord for civilian trade on the Ohio River, the ship was purchased by the Navy in March 1864 and renamed. Converted to a tinclad (a type of lightly-armored vessel used on inland rivers during the war) and commissioned the following month, Undine originally served on the Mississippi River before being transferred to the Tennessee River. In July 1864, the vessel sank after hitting a snag (submerged tree) near Clifton, Tennessee, but was refloated a week later. Undine was then involved in an operation at Eastport, Mississippi, on October 10.
While responding to the sound of a fight between Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry raiders and a transport on October 30, Undine was damaged and surrendered to Forrest's troops. Taken into Confederate service, Undine participated in Forrest's movement against the Union supply depot at Johnsonville, Tennessee. With Undine caught between two Union naval forces, the Confederates burned the captured tinclad on November 4. What is left of Undine lies beneath Kentucky Lake.
Civil War operations
Early activities
The packet steamer Ben Gaylord was built by Captain Uriah B. Scott at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1863. A sternwheel steamer with a wooden hull and a tonnage of 179 tons, Ben Gaylord was intended for use in civilian trade between the Ohio River towns of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Parkersburg, West Virginia. It is known that the vessel had two boilers, but no information on her dimensions is available. On March 7, 1864, the steamer was acquired by the Union Navy for military use in the American Civil War. The purchase took place at Cincinnati, at a cost of $35,600, which is equivalent to $ in . After acquisition, the government renamed the vessel Undine after the mythical class of water nymphs.