48), a steamer built in 1863 at Cincinnati, Ohio, was purchased by the Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter of the U.S. Navy on 31 December 1863 for service in the Mississippi Squadron.

When she was finally ready for active service, she was transferred to Admiral David Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron which was then preparing for the invasion of Mobile Bay.

Rodolph's shallow draft enabled her to be especially useful during "mop up" operations while Union seapower projected General Edward Canby's army against the final defenses of the city of Mobile, Alabama.

[2] On the 11th, the two ships escorted a Union Army transport, Planter, up the Fish River to seize a sawmill engine and some 60,000 board feet (140 m3) of lumber.

On 1 April 1865, as she was towing a barge to assist in salvaging the sunken monitor Milwaukee, Rodolph was herself sunk when she struck a mine in the Blakeley River.