"Undine", , and transports "City of Pekin", "Kenton", and "Aurora" left Clifton on 9 October on an expedition to capture Eastport, Mississippi. This operation was launched to prevent cavalry forces under Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest from crossing the Tennessee River at Eastport and to provide an outpost against an expected advance of General Hood. However, the Union force was ambushed by shore batteries on 10 October as it landed troops near Eastport. After a heated, 30-minute exchange with the batteries, "Undine" and "Key West" evacuated troops caught ashore in the withering crossfire and escorted the disabled transports back downstream. The battered expedition returned to Paducah, Kentucky, at sundown on 12 October.