USS Hastings was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat assigned to patrol Confederate waterways. Hastings, a small wooden gunboat, was built as Emma Duncan in 1860 at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, and operated as a river transport out of Cincinnati, Ohio. She was purchased at Cairo, Illinois, in March 1863 from J. Bachelor. Fitted out and ready for service in April; her first commanding officer was Acting Master W. N. Griswold. Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter recommended that her name be changed to Hastings 7 April 1863. Hastings receives battle damage in Confederate waterways One of the group of lightly built steamers which bore the brunt of the war on the Mississippi River tributaries, Hastings was initially assigned to the Tennessee River. While steaming upriver to report for duty, she received her baptism of fire when attacked by Confederate guerrillas near Green Bottom Bar 24 April. Captain Griswold rounded to and engaged the Confederates for a time, after which they withdrew. The light gunboat was hulled seven times and suffered three casualties in the action. Assisting General Sherman’s march Hastings then assumed duty as a convoy ship for Union Army transports on the Tennessee River. In May she was sent briefly for duty at the mouth of the Yazoo River, but was soon back on the Tennessee. She arrived in Eastport, Mississippi, 26 October 1863 to assist General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops in crossing the river during operations culminating in the Third Battle of Chattanooga, and steamed to Paducah, Kentucky, when that city was threatened by Confederate cavalry 8 November. In need of repairs, Hastings returned to the Naval Station at Cairo, Illinois, 16 December. Louisiana operations in support of General Kilby Smith Hastings resumed active patrolling in April 1864, and was detailed to convoy General Thomas Kilby Smith's transports from Springfield Landing to Grand Ecore, Louisiana. Union troops had suffered defeat at the Battle of Pleasant Hill, and the land portion of the Red River Campaign was deemed a failure. Covering the withdrawal of Smith's troops, Hastings took part 12 April in an engagement with Confederate cavalry and artillery near Blair's Landing. After a fierce engagement, in which Hastings fought at the rear of the transport group, the convoy passed downriver. Action at Fort Pillow, Tennessee As the pace of Confederate attacks in Tennessee heightened,