The first USS Suwanee was a 3rd-rate gunboat commissioned by the Union Navy in its struggle against the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War.

Commissioned late in the war, Suwanee spent several weeks searching for the Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah without success.

Suwanee was powered by a 58-inch bore, 8-foot 9-inch stroke, inclined, direct-acting steam engine, fitted with a surface condenser.

Ordered to the Pacific Ocean, the new double-ender departed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at dawn on 17 February 1865 and proceeded via New York City down the Atlantic coast of the Americas looking for Confederate commerce raiders, especially for CSS Shenandoah, which had been plaguing Northern shipping.

After the Southern cruiser Shenandoah surrendered at Liverpool, England, late in the year, Suwanee cruised along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Canada.