The first USS Mist was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was planned by the Union Navy for use as a gunboat stationed off Confederate waterways to prevent their trading with foreign countries. Mist, a stern wheel steamer built at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in 1864, was purchased at Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 December 1864, and commissioned at Mound City, Illinois, 3 March 1865, Acting Master W. E. H. Fontress in command.