The first USS Onward was a clipper in the Union Navy. Onward was launched 3 July 1852 by James O. Curtis at Medford, Massachusetts, for Reed, Wade, and Co., of Boston, Massachusetts, and operated in the merchant service between New York City, Boston, and San Francisco. Purchased by the U.S. Navy at New York City from John Ogden on 9 September 1861, for service in the American Civil War, Onward commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 11 January 1862, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels in command.