USS Southard, a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Commissioned in September 1919, she served briefly along the U.S. east coast before deploying to the Mediterranean. In late 1920 or early 1921, Southard steamed through the Suez Canal and onward to the Far East, where she remained until August 1922. She then crossed the Pacific to the U.S. west coast, where she was placed in reserve early in 1923.

Southard returned to active service in January 1930 and served for the rest of the decade with the U.S. Fleet, mainly in the Pacific but with brief visits to the Atlantic. As the international situation worsened in 1940, the now-elderly destroyer was converted to a high-speed minesweeper, receiving the new hull number DMS-10 in October of that year. She was serving in Hawaiian waters when Japan began the great Pacific War on 7 December 1941.

After spending the War's first seven months operating in the Hawaiian area and escorting convoys between Hawaii and the west coast, Southard went to the south Pacific in July 1942 and a month later took part in the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi. For the rest of 1942, she was assigned to convoy duty in support of the Guadalcanal campaign. Following overhaul, the fast minesweeper returned to the war zone in mid-1943 to resume her shipping protection mission. Later in the year she participated in the Bougainville campaign.

With time out for a west coast refit in June and July 1944, Southard was active in the southern and western Pacific until early 1945. She was employed in minesweeping and other duties during the invasions of the Palaus in September 1944, Leyte in October and Luzon in January 1945. A Japanese suicide plane struck her amidships while she was sweeping mines on 6 January 1945, during the Lingayen Gulf operation. The resulting damage was repaired in Hawaii between February and May. Southard spent the rest of the War in vicinity of Okinawa. In September and October 1945, soon after Japan's surrender, she was twice battered by typhoons and driven aground. Written off as a total loss, USS Southard was formally decommissioned in early December 1945. Her wreck was destroyed in mid-January 1946.

USS Southard was named in honor of Samuel L. Southard (1787-1842), who served as Secretary of the Navy in 1823-1829.