USS Ceres, an 144-ton (burden) side-wheel gunboat, was built in 1856 at New York City as a civilian steamer. She was purchased by the Navy in September 1861 and served for the remainder of the Civil War in the waters of North Carolina and southern Virginia. While enforcing the blockade of the Confederacy, Ceres took or destroyed two sailing vessels and two steamers, three in 1862 and one in 1864. She also participated in several combat actions, among them the captures of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City, N.C., in February 1862, and the defense of Federal positions around the North Carolina Sounds in 1863 and 1864. In April and May 1864 she was involved in two fights with the Confederate ironclad Albemarle. Sent north after the war's end, USS Ceres was decommissioned at New York in July 1865 and sold in October. Returning to commercial employment under the same name, she lasted at least until 1887, when she was removed from shipping registers.