USS Monongahela (1863-1908)
The steam screw sloop, USS Monongahela, was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, and was commissioned during the Civil War on January 15, 1863. Patrolling the lower Mississippi River and involved in the heavy engagement at Port Hudson, Louisiana, she also participated in the Gulf of Mexico blockade. During the Battle of Mobile Bay, on August 5, 1864, she rammed the Confederate ironclad Tennessee. Following the war, Monongahela was assigned to the West Indies and was cast ashore in November 1867 at St. Croix, Virgin Islands. After repairs in 1873, she served six years in the Pacific, Atlantic and off Asia. Before becoming a ship-rigged sail training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy in 1894, Monongahela served as a sailing storeship and a supply vessel. Upon completion of her training duties in 1904, she became a storeship at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was destroyed by fire on March 17, 1908.
Image: 19-N-12118: USS Monongahela, later 1890s. U.S. Bureau of Ships photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
