USS Indianola was a casemate ironclad that served as a river gunboat for the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

On April 30, 1862, shipbuilder Joseph Brown of Cincinnati, Ohio, signed a contract with the United States government to build Indianola for $128,000.

At the time, Major General Edmund Kirby Smith's corps of the Army of Tennessee was encamped at Lexington, Kentucky.

Fourteen days later after Wallace seized the Indianola, Acting Master Edward Shaw was appointed to command the ship, which had been placed into commission by September 27.

[12] The day before, Indianola left her moorings at the Yazoo at 22:15[4] with two barges loaded with coal strapped to her sides[13] and steamed south under fire from the Vicksburg defenses.

After passing the Confederate positions, Indianola anchored below Warrenton, Mississippi for the night and resumed the movement south.

[4] She had been chosen for the operation because her engines would allow her to make a speed of 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) upstream against the current, which was much faster than Porter's other ironclads, meaning that Indianola would better be able to escape upriver in case of an emergency.

[12] However, Queen of the West was disabled in a fight with Confederate shore defenses along the Red, and had to be abandoned, with her escaping crew occupying the captured packet steamer Era No.

They were pursued by the Confederate ram CSS William H. Webb,[13] but managed to reach the safety of Indianola on February 16.

[4] Indianola then held a blockade of the junction of the Red and the Mississippi, but withdrew on February 21 after learning that William H. Webb, the captured and repaired Queen of the West, and two steamers filled with Confederate soldiers were moving to attack her.

[2] After shots from the Union 11-inch guns missed,[15] Queen of the West rammed Indianola on her port side and smashed one of the coal barges almost in half.

[4] While all but one Union sailor survived the battle, only three escaped the ship's capture to bring word to Porter;[14] Brown and most of the others had been taken prisoner.

This was accomplished by lengthening an old coal barge with logs and adding a casemate, Quaker guns, and two smokestacks made out of pork barrels.

It passed the Vicksburg defenses without taking major damage, and frightened Queen of the West into leaving the area of the wreck.