At the start of the pre-dreadnought era the US Navy was small, weak and generally obsolete; by the end of the era it was one of the world's major naval forces. The design of US pre-dreadnoughts paralleled this shift in role and position, going from small, weak and outdated ships to large, powerful and modern ships. However, US pre-dreadnoughts were generally a bit behind foreign ships in adopting new advances. The last class of pre-dreadnoughts was completed after HMS Dreadnought had entered service, rendering them instantly obsolete.

A few of the early pre-dreadnought saw service during the Spanish-American War, and performed well during terribly one-sided battles. However, the engagements showed that much better fire control was needed, as hit percentages were pitifully low.

Aside from the Spanish-American War engagements, US pre-dreadnoughts saw no combat. They spent much of their time in reserve or mobilization fleets, and as training ships. In 1907-1909 most of the pre-dreadnoughts then in service, except the earliest (least-seaworthy) ships, participated in the round the world cruise of the Great White Fleet. Ships cruising with the Fleet were Kearsarge, Kentucky, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Louisiana, Vermont, Minnesota and Kansas. It had been intended that Nebraska, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Idaho would join the Fleet in 1908, giving a total force of 20 ships. However, the latter pair of ships was found to be deficient and thus did not cruise with the Fleet. Nebraska and Wisconsin did join the cruise, but Alabama and Maine had developed problems and were forced to drop out when the additional ships joined.

In 1909-1911 the entire pre-dreadnought fleet was put through a modernization program, to make the already-obsolete ships as useful as possible. They received new cage masts in place of their military pole masts, superstructures were reduced to a bare minimum, conning towers were enlarged, new fire controls were fitted, the secondary batteries reduced, and safety improvements were made in the main turrets. In addition the fleet was repainted from white-and-buff to plain gray.

During WWI these ships served mainly as training ships, operating primarily in the Chesapeake Bay area. They also conducted a limited number of convoy escort missions. During the war their secondary batteries were greatly reduced or even removed entirely, both to improve seaworthiness by removing low-level casemates, and to provide guns for merchant ships. Postwar they were assigned to the Cruiser-Transport Force and outfitted as troop transports to bring troops home from Europe.

All pre-dreadnoughts surviving into the 1920's were stricken and scrapped under the terms of the Washington Treaty.