USS Shokokon was a large (709-ton) steamer with powerful 30-pounder rifled guns, purchased by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. With a crew of 112 sailors, she was employed by the Union Navy as a heavy gunboat outfitted to pursue blockade runners of the Confederate States of America, and to participate in river operations. When required, towards war's end, she acted as a minesweeper, removing Confederate naval mines from Northern Virginia rivers.