USS Massachusetts was a large steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War.

USS Massachusetts captured blockade-running sloop Charles Henry near Ship Island August 7 and gained information on Fort Pike, which guarded the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain for the South.

Fitted out as a transport and supply ship, she recommissioned April 16 and operated along the Atlantic coast until decommissioning at New York City December 3.

USS Massachusetts recommissioned March 10, 1863, and, but for a brief period late that summer, served the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron through the end of the war.

On March 19, 1865, USS Massachusetts struck a torpedo (mine), which failed to explode, in Charleston Harbor.