USS Covington, a 224-ton side-wheel "Tinclad" river gunboat, was built in 1862 at Cincinnati, Ohio, as the civilian steamer Covington No. 2. She was converted to a gunboat shortly after the Navy purchased her in February 1863. Covington served on the Tennessee River during the Spring of 1863 and was then transferred to the Mississippi and its western tributaries. On 5 May 1864, while convoying a transport on the Red River, she was disabled by the gunfire of a strong Confederate military force and was burned by her crew.