 "Judge Torrence" was a steamer purchased by the U.S. War Department 10 February 1862 for use as an ordnance ship in the Western Gunboat Flotilla organized by the Union Army on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers soon after the outbreak of the American Civil War.She was transferred to the Union Navy 30 September 1862 and commissioned at Cairo, Illinois, 25 December, Comdr.LeRoy Fitch in command.