USS Malvern (eventually renamed Ella and Annie) was a large steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

Malvern was built in 1860 as William G. Hewes by Harlan and Hollingsworth Co., Wilmington, Delaware, for Charles Morgan’s Southern Steamship Co. She commenced regular service between New York City and New Orleans, Louisiana, 11 January 1861.

Frank N. Bonneau, CSN, in command of the blockade runner, rammed the northern gunboat in a desperate attempt at evasion.

A broadside from Niphon, Acting Master Joseph B. Breck, USN, in command, killed one man in Ella and Annie, riddled her hull, and brought her to.

A boarding party from Niphon captured Ella and Annie and her valuable cargo, and a prize crew took her to Boston, Massachusetts.

Hastily armed, renamed Malvern and provisionally commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard 10 December, she was sent to intercept Chesapeake, which had been hijacked at sea by passengers professing allegiance to the Confederacy.

She captured blockade running steamers Stag and Charlotte 19 January off New Inlet, North Carolina, and participated in the attack 18 February on Fort Anderson, Cape Fear River.

Malvern was frequently utilized for conferences between Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Rear Admiral Porter, and U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

Her last notable service for the Navy was to convey the President up the James River to Richmond, Virginia, when that city was evacuated by the Confederates on 2 April.

A contingent of armed guards from the Malvern protected the President during his visit to the captured Confederate capital city, now under U.S. control, where Lincoln was greeted amicably by former slaves, who hailed him as a hero and credited for their liberation.

Those materials were then incorporated into the construction of a grand estate for Mr. Winston's wife, named Malvern, which was designed and built by famed architect John Staub in the Memorial area of Houston, TX.