query: instance_of uss alpha 
supports: A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. A civil war, also known as an intrastate war in polemology, is a war between organized groups within the same state or country, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly united state.
  The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to change government policies.
  The term is a calque of the Latin "bellum civile" which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such as lake or harbour tour boats. As larger water craft, virtually all riverboats are especially designed and constructed, or alternatively, constructed with special-purpose features that optimizes them as riverine or lake service craft, for instance, dredgers, survey boats, fisheries management craft, fireboats and law enforcement patrol craft. The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage. The U.S. Navy has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on active duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 aircraft in active service . A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States fought from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America. The Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U.S. history. The Union Navy was the United States Navy (USN) during the American Civil War, when it fought the Confederate States Navy (CSN). The term is sometimes used carelessly to include vessels of war used on the rivers of the interior while they were actually under the control of the United States Army, referred to in the same fashion as the Union Army. The Confederate States, officially the Confederate States of America (CSA or C.S.), commonly referred to as the Confederacy, was an unrecognized breakaway country of 11 secessionist slave states existing from 1861 to 1865. It was originally formed by seven slave states  South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas  in the Lower South region of the United States whose regional economy was mostly dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves. Secession (derived from the Latin term "secessio") is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity (a country), but also any organization, union or military alliance. Threats of secession can also be a strategy for achieving more limited goals. USS Alpha ( 1864 ) was a side wheel Paddle steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . Alpha was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat -- with a spar torpedo as a weapon -- in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways . The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865. It included the permanent regular army of the United States, which was augmented by massive numbers of temporary units consisting of volunteers as well as conscripts. The Union Army fought and eventually defeated the Confederate Army during the war. At least two and a half million men served in the Union Army; almost all were volunteers. About 360,000 Union soldiers died from all causes; 280,000 were wounded and 200,000 deserted. The United States Army (USA) is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 and United States Code, Title 10, Subtitle B, Chapter 301, Section 3001. As the largest and senior branch of the U.S. military, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed (14 June 1775) to fight the American Revolutionary War (17751783)before the U.S. was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775. The Navy of the Confederate States (CSN) was the naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American Civil War, fighting against the U.S. Navy. A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is an ocean faring seaworthy vessel that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically drive (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for "paddle steamer" or "SS" for "screw steamer" (using a propeller or screw). As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is assumed by many to stand for "steam ship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for "motor vessel", so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels.
candidates: aircraft aircraft carrier alliance armed forces army battle branch century change chapter civil war confederation congress construction country engine entertainment fashion fleet fluid force government group heat engine history law may military naval warfare navigation navy paddle steamer people prefix region republic riverboat secession seven ship side steamship ten term three union war
answer: steamship