USS Curlew (1862) was a Union Navy steamship purchased during the second year of the American Civil War. Curlew was a light draft vessel, capable of sailing up shallow streams. She was outfitted with eight heavy howitzers, designed for bombardment, and was assigned to the blockade of the Confederate States of America. Because of the light draft and the howitzers, she was assigned as a mortar gunboat, and she operated on Southern waterways during the course of the war.