The list of ship commissionings in 1862 includes a chronological list of all ships commissioned in 1862.
| Date | Operator | Ship | Class and type | Pennant | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 January |  United States Navy | Vandalia | Screw sloop | ||
| 3 October | United States Navy | Essex | Wooden screw steamer | ||
| 24 November | United States Navy | Passaic | Passaic-class monitor | Second commissioning | |
| 27 November | United States Navy | Ranger [1] | Steamship | Later renamed Rockport, then Nantucket |
Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a 20-knot warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.
The first USS Colorado, a 3,400-long-ton (3,500 t), three-masted steam screw frigate, was launched on 19 June 1856, by the Norfolk Navy Yard. Named after the Colorado River, she was sponsored by Ms. N. S. Dornin, and commissioned on 13 March 1858, with Captain W. H. Gardner, in command. She was the fifth of the "Franklin-class" frigates, which were all named after US rivers, except for Franklin.
CSS Tennessee was a casemate ironclad ram built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. She served as the flagship of Admiral Franklin Buchanan, commander of the Mobile Squadron, after her commissioning. She was captured in 1864 by the Union Navy during the Battle of Mobile Bay and then participated in the Union's subsequent Siege of Fort Morgan. Tennessee was decommissioned after the war and sold in 1867 for scrap.
CSS Baltic was an ironclad warship that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. A towboat before the war, she was purchased by the state of Alabama in December 1861 for conversion into an ironclad. After being transferred to the Confederate Navy in May 1862 as an ironclad, she served on Mobile Bay off the Gulf of Mexico. Baltic's condition in Confederate service was such that naval historian William N. Still Jr. has described her as "a nondescript vessel in many ways". Over the next two years, parts of the ship's wooden structure were affected by wood rot. Her armor was removed to be put onto the ironclad CSS Nashville in 1864. By that August, Baltic had been decommissioned. Near the end of the war, she was taken up the Tombigbee River, where she was captured by Union forces on May 10, 1865. An inspection of Baltic the next month found that her upper hull and deck were rotten and that her boilers were unsafe. She was sold on December 31, and was likely broken up in 1866.
CSS Richmond was the name ship of her class of six casemate ironclads built for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Completed during 1862 the ship was assigned to the James River Squadron where she mostly supported Confederate forces near Richmond, Virginia. She was burned in April 1865 to prevent her capture by Union forces.
USS Merrimack, also improperly Merrimac, was a steam frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship CSS Virginia was constructed during the American Civil War. The CSS Virginia then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads in the first engagement between ironclad warships.
USS Wabash was a steam screw frigate of the United States Navy that served during the American Civil War. She was based on the same plans as Colorado. Post-war she continued to serve her country in European operations and eventually served as a barracks ship in Boston, Massachusetts, and was sold in 1912.
USS Dictator was a single-turreted ironclad monitor, designed for speed, and to sail on the open sea. Originally to be named Protector, the Navy Department preferred a more aggressive name, and she was renamed Dictator. Despite her being designed for speed, design problems limited her to a maximum of 10 knots. She served in two different periods; from 1864 to 1865, serving with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and from 1869 to 1877, with the North Atlantic Fleet. After her final decommissioning in 1877, she was sold for scrap in 1883.
The first USS Milwaukee, a double-turreted Milwaukee-class river monitor, the lead ship of her class, built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The ship supported Union forces during the Mobile Campaign as they attacked Confederate fortifications defending the city of Mobile, Alabama in early 1865. She struck a mine in March and sank without loss. Her wreck was raised in 1868 and broken up for scrap that was used in the construction of a bridge in St. Louis, Missouri.
HMS Prince Consort was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy. Laid down as HMS Triumph, at HM Royal Dockyard, Pembroke as a 91-gun screw second-rate line-of-battle ship, she was renamed HMS Prince Consort on 14 February 1862 following the death of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the husband of Queen Victoria.
The Sangamon class were a group of four escort aircraft carriers of the United States Navy that served during World War II.
The Moudge or Mowj or Moj is a class of domestically-produced Iranian light frigates.
The USS Beauregard began the war as a Confederate privateer. The Union Navy acquired the schooner from the prize court and outfitted the vessel for blockade duty.
USS Maria J. Carlton was a schooner acquired by the United States Navy on October 15, 1861, during the American Civil War. Built before the war, the vessel was converted into a mortar schooner by the Navy. She was then transferred to the mouth of the Mississippi River in early 1862, as part of a force tasked with neutralizing Confederate forts guarding New Orleans, Louisiana. Maria J. Carlton participated in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip on April 18, but, the battle continuing, was sunk the next day by a shot from Fort Jackson. She was the only Union warship sunk solely by artillery fire from Confederate forts on the Mississippi River during the war.
The Marietta-class monitors were a pair of ironclad river monitors laid down in the summer of 1862 for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction was slow, partially for lack of labor, and the ships were not completed until December 1865, after the war was over. However the navy did not accept them until 1866 and immediately laid them up. They were sold in 1873 without ever having been commissioned.
The Danish ironclad Peder Skram was originally laid down as a wooden steam frigate for the Royal Danish Navy, but was converted to an armored frigate while under construction in the early 1860s. She had an uneventful career before she was stricken from the Navy List on 7 December 1885. The ship was converted into an accommodation ship that year and was broken up in 1897.
The Danish ironclad Dannebrog was an armored frigate of the Royal Danish Navy that was originally built as an 80-gun ship-of-the-line by Andreas Schifter was launched in 1850 but was reconstructed into a steam-powered ironclad in the early 1860s. She had an uneventful career before the ship was stricken from the navy list in 1875. The ship was converted into an accommodation ship that same year and served until she became a target ship in 1896. Dannebrog was broken up in 1897.
The Unadilla class was a class of gunboat built for the Union Navy at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Ships of the class were also known as "90-day gunboats" due to their rapid construction. The class was designed to be fully oceangoing while having a light enough draft to be able to operate close inshore, for blockade duty or other operations in shallow waters.
CSS Carondelet was a sidewheel steamer that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction for the vessel started in 1861, and she was launched on January 25, 1862, and commissioned on March 16. Her sister ship was CSS Bienville. On April 4, Carondelet, along with CSS Oregon and CSS Pamlico, took part in a small naval action near Pass Christian against USS New London, USS John P. Jackson, and the troop transport USS Henry Lewis. Carondelet suffered damage to her wheel during the fight, and likely fired the only two shots that struck John P. Jackson. Later that month, with the Confederates abandoning New Orleans, Louisiana, Carondelet was scuttled by her crew in either Lake Pontchartrain, the Tchefuncte River, or the Bogue Falaya River.