Fairplay was a wooden riverine ship in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was originally built in 1859 at New Albany, Indiana, for service on the Mississippi River and other waterways. She was pressed into service at the start of the Civil War by the Confederacy, but was captured by the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment on 18 August 1862, during a joint expedition to Milliken's Bend on the Mississippi. The Union Army took possession of the ship, and on 6 September 1862, Fairplay was commissioned into Federal service with Lieutenant Commander LeRoy Fitch in command. She was transferred to the Union Navy on 1 October 1862.