High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Pawtuxet was a side wheel steamer of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Launched by the Portsmouth Navy Yard on 19 March 1864, she was delivered to the Navy at New York on 18 May 1864, and commissioned on 26 August 1864, Comdr. J. H. Spotts in command. She was named after a river in Rhode Island.