CSS Maurepas was a sidewheel steamer that briefly served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.

Built in 1858 in Indiana as Grosse Tete (English: "big head"), the vessel was used in commercial trade until 1860 and then delivered mail until 1861, when she was acquired by the Confederate Navy.

After being outfitted with five or six cannons and renamed Maurepas, she was sent to the defenses of Columbus, Kentucky, in March 1862, and participated in actions near Island Number Ten.

After an abortive naval skirmish near Fort Pillow in Tennessee, Maurepas and the gunboat CSS Pontchartrain were sent up the White River to resist Union advances and aid transport.

[1] After the outbreak of the American Civil War, Grosse Tete was purchased by the Confederate States Navy at New Orleans in November 1861 to be used as a gunboat,[1][2] although her sidewheel propulsion system was considered less useful than if she was a screw steamer.

[1] Beginning in November 1861, a number of Confederate warships were sent north up the Mississippi River to support the defenses at Columbus, Kentucky.

[8] On the night of April 4/5, the ironclad USS Carondelet ran past the Confederate defenses of Island Number Ten to New Madrid, Missouri, which was under Union control.

After navigating a bend in the river, the Confederate ships realized they were facing a large and prepared Union fleet and fell back to Fort Pillow.

Pinckney soon arrived to take command, and sent Maurepas and Pontchartrain to operate on the White River to resist Union advances and serve as transports.

[16] The next day, in the Battle of Saint Charles, the Union forces brushed aside the Confederate defenses, although a cannon shot struck the ironclad USS Mound City, puncturing the ship's steam drum and scalding most of those on board.

The Union supply mission eventually failed due to low water levels, and the infantry force had to march overland to a point from which they could be resupplied.