 "General Bragg" was originally the 1043-ton side-wheel river steamer "Mexico" and was built in New York City in 1851.She was owned by the Southern Steamship Co. at the start of the American Civil War

"Mexico" was pressed into Confederate service as CSS "General Bragg" at New Orleans, Louisiana 15 January 1862.She was converted to a "cottonclad" ram and renamed for General Braxton Bragg, a western theater commander.