CSS Resolute was a tugboat built in 1858 at Savannah, Ga. She entered Confederate service in 1861 and operated as a tow boat, transport, receiving ship, and tender to the sidewheeler CSS Savannah on the coastal and inland waters of Georgia and South Carolina.

On 5-6 November 1861, Resolute, under Lt. J. P. Jones, CSN, in company with Lady Davis, Sampson and Savannah, under the overall command of Flag Officer J. Tattnall, CSN, offered harassing resistance to a much larger Union fleet preparing to attack Confederate strongholds at Port Royal Sound, S.C.

On 7 November 1861, while Resolute had been sent to Savannah with dispatches, the Union fleet under Flag Officer S. F. Du Pont, USN, pounded the Confederate Forts Walker and Beauregard until they were abandoned. Upon her return, Resolute helped evacuate the garrison of Fort Walker and then returned to spike the Confederate guns at Pope's Landing on Hilton Head Island.

On 26 November 1861, Resolute, in company with Sampson and Savannah, under Flag Officer Tattnall, weighed anchor from under the guns of Fort Pulaski, S.C., and made a brief attack on Union vessels at the mouth of the Savannah River. On 28 January 1862, accompanied by Sampson and Savannah, she delivered supplies to the fort despite the spirited opposition of Federal ships.

On 12 December 1864 while on an expedition with the gunboats Macon and Sampson, under Flag Officer W. W. Hunter, CSN, to destroy the Charleston and Savannah Railway bridge spanning the Savannah River, Resolute received heavy fire from a Union field battery. Although hit twice she was not seriously damaged until she was disabled by colliding with the two gunboats during their retreat. Although the gunboats escaped, Resolute ran aground on Argyle Island on the Savannah River. She was captured on the same day by Union soldiers under Col. W. Hawly, USA, of General Sherman's forces, and taken into Federal service.