USS Massachusetts (1860) was a large steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in the blockade of Confederate ports. At war's end, she was outfitted as a cargo ship and served in that capacity until finally decommissioned. Massachusetts, an iron-screw steamer built in 1860 at Boston, Massachusetts, was purchased by the Union Navy on May 3, 1861, from the Boston & Southern Steamship Company. The ship was commissioned three weeks later, at Boston Harbor, under the command of Melancton Smith.