USS Monongahela, a 2078-ton steam screw sloop built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in January 1863. Her first service was on the lower Mississippi River, where she was heavily engaged at Port Hudson and elsewhere. From mid-1863 to the end of the Civil War, Monongahela participated in the Gulf of Mexico blockade. On 5 August 1864, she played an active role in the Battle of Mobile Bay, ramming the Confederate ironclad Tennessee.

Following the War, Monongahela was assigned to the West Indies. On 18 November 1867, she was cast ashore at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, by a tidal wave and was only refloated six months later. In 1873, after extensive repairs, she began six years' service in the Pacific, the western Atlantic and in Asiatic waters. Monongahela was converted to a sailing storeship in 1883-84, with her engines removed to increase storage space. From then until 1890, she served as supply vessel at Callao, Peru.

Monongahela's next role was as a ship-rigged sail training ship for apprentice seamen and, from 1894 to 1899, for the U.S. Naval Academy's midshipmen. Her training duties ended in 1904, when she became storeship at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Monongahela was destroyed by fire there on 17 March 1908.