USS Louisiana, a 16,000-ton Connecticut class battleship built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned in June 1906. During that year and the next, she was active in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean areas, including making a diplomatic visit to Havana, Cuba, in September 1906 and carrying President Theodore Roosevelt to Panama later in that year. From December 1907 until February 1909, Louisiana steamed around the World with the other battleships of the "Great White Fleet". During this cruise, she called on ports in Trinidad, South America, Mexico, the U.S. west coast, Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Ceylon, and the Mediterranean.

Overhauled following her return to the United States, Louisiana was fitted with the then-new "cage" masts. For the next six years, she primarily operated off the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean area, participating in Atlantic Fleet battleship exercises. She also made two cruises to European waters in late 1910 and in mid-1911. In April-August 1914, Louisiana was one of many U.S. warships that took part in the occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico. From late 1915 until the the spring of 1917, she was employed on training duties when not in reserve.

Louisiana's World War I service, from April 1917 until the Armistice of 11 November 1918, mainly consisted of gunnery and engineering training operations along the U.S. Atlantic coast and undertook convoy escort missions during the conflict's last two months. From December 1918 until mid-1919, she transported servicemen back to the United States from Europe. USS Louisiana was reclassified BB-20 in July 1920 and decommissioned in the following October. After three years of inactivity, she was sold for scrapping in November 1923.