C.S. Army Gunboat Bayou City (1861-1865) was a 165-foot side-wheel steamboat built for commercial use at Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1859. Serving as a mail boat between Galveston and Houston, Texas, the ship was chartered on 26 September 1861 by Comdr. W. Hunter, CSN, commanding the Texas Marine Department, from the Houston Navigation Co.