USS Itasca was a Unadilla-class gunboat built for the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries. Itasca was a wooden screw steamer launched by Hillman & Streaker at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1 October 1861; and commissioned there 28 November 1861, Lt. C. H. B. Caldwell in command.