USS United States was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy and the first of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. The name "United States" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so United States and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. She was built at Humphrey's shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and launched on 10 May 1797 and immediately began duties with the newly formed United States Navy protecting American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France.

In 1861, United States was in port at Norfolk when she was seized by the Virginia Navy. She was subsequently commissioned into the Confederate navy as CSS United States, but was later scuttled by Confederate forces. The U.S. Navy raised United States after retaking Norfolk, Virginia, but the aged and damaged ship was not returned to service; instead, United States was held at the Norfolk Navy Yard until she was broken up in December 1865.