USS Essex (1856), launched in 1856 as New Era, was an ironclad gunboat during the American Civil War. Before the United States Army upgraded and renamed her in 1861, she was a timberclad gunboat called USS New Era.
This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.