USS Congress (1868)
The fifth USS "Congress" was a screw sloop in the United States Navy. Service history. "Congress" was launched by the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 17 July 1868, sponsored by the daughter of Senator Charles D. Drake of Missouri; and commissioned on 4 March 1870, Captain N. Harrison in command. The ship was variously known as "Pushmataha", and "Cambridge" prior to 10 August 1869, when she was renamed "Congress", the name under which she performed all her service. Her initial cruise, undertaken in 1870, was as flagship for Commodore Joseph F. Green of the South Atlantic Squadron. Returning  to Boston, Massachusetts, on 29 May 1871, she was placed under Commander Henry Kallock Davenport. In the summer of that year she transported supplies from New York City to the , which was anchored at Godhavn, Disko Island, preparatory to departing on an Arctic expedition. Late in 1871, "Congress" served also as flagship for Vice Admiral Stephen Clegg Rowan who had been designated to accord suitable reception to a visiting Russian squadron. After a cruise to Haiti in early 1872, "Congress" sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, on 14 February, to join the Mediterranean Squadron. This lengthy tour included visits to many ports  of Europe and ended at Key West, Florida, where she arrived on 5 January 1874. She was back in the Mediterranean by 9 April, and visited ports on the coasts of Africa and Europe before returning to Philadelphia to visit the Centennial Exposition of 1876. "Congress" was decommissioned on 26 July 1876, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and laid up in ordinary until 20 September 1883, when she was sold.