USS Tacony was a double-ended, side-wheel steamboat acquired by the Union Navy during the third year of the American Civil War.

The double-ender was assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and sailed south from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania soon thereafter, bound for Key West, Florida.

She departed Hampton Roads before dawn on the morning of 27 February, bound for the North Carolina sounds to strengthen Union forces afloat in those dangerous waters against the attacks by the Confederate ironclad ram Albemarle, then reportedly nearing completion up the Roanoke River.

Four sailors from the Tacony were awarded the Medal of Honor for going ashore and disabling a Confederate artillery gun while under heavy fire during this action.

She was part of the powerful fleet which Porter led back to Fort Fisher in mid-January 1865, and she supported the effort which finally compelled that valuable Confederate stronghold to surrender on the 15th.