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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] David Farragut Biography FARRAGUT, David Glascoe (1801–70). The most famous of American naval officers. He was born at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tenn., on July 5, 1801, the son of George Farragut (1775–1817), a native of Minorca, who had emigrated to the United States in 1776 and had taken an active part in the Revolutionary War. In 1808 the future admiral was adopted by Commander (later Commodore) Porter, and in December, 1810, entered the navy as a midshipman. He was assigned to the Essex (Captain Porter) in the same year, accompanied this vessel on its famous cruise in the Pacific (1812–14), and on March 28, 1814, distinguished himself in the bloody battle with the English vessels the Phœbe and the Cherub. He then served successively on the Independence and the Macedonian in the Mediterranean (1815–17), studied for nine months under Charles Folsom, United States Consul at Tunis, became acting lieutenant on the Shark in 1819, was placed in command of the Ferret in 1823, and in 1825 became lieutenant on the Brandywine. For the next 12 years he served in subordinate capacities on various vessels and in various parts of the world, but in 1838 was placed in command of the sloop Erie and in 1841 was raised to the rank of commander. During the Mexican War he commanded the sloop of war Saratoga, in Commodore Perry’s squadron, and maintained a strict blockade of the port of Tuxpan. He was on duty at the Norfolk (Va.) Navy Yard from 1848 to 1850, when he went to Washington to help compile a book of ordnance regulations for the navy, and from 1854 to 1858 was engaged in establishing the Mare Island Navy Yard, in San Francisco Bay. In 1858–59 he was commander of the sloop of war Brooklyn and in 1860–61 was again stationed at the Norfolk Navy Yard. Though bound to the South by birth and by the strongest of family ties, he remained steadfastly loyal to the Union at the time of the Civil War, and when Virginia seceded he removed from Norfolk to Hastings-on-the-Hudson and offered his services unreservedly to the Federal government. He served for several months on the Naval Retiring Board, but in December, 1861, was put in command of the West Gulf blockading squadron of 17 vessels, which, with a mortar flotilla of 25 vessels, under Commander (later Admiral) David D. Porter (q.v.), was ordered to effect the capture of New Orleans. On April 18, 1862, the mortar flotilla opened fire on Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which, facing each other across the Mississippi, guarded the approach to the city; but the bombardment made comparatively little impression, and on the 24th Farragut ran by the forts under a terrific fire (his flagship the Hartford suffering considerable damage), avoided the fire rafts sent against him, and with the loss of a single vessel (though three had been forced to put back), completely destroyed a Confederate fleet of 13 gunboats and two ironclads. (See Fort Jackson and New Orleans.) On April 27 he took formal command of New Orleans, which was almost immediately occupied by Federal troops under Gen. B. F. Butler (q.v.). On June 28, 1862, a part of his fleet passed the batteries of Vicksburg with slight loss and a few weeks later repassed them. On March 14, 1863, Farragut succeeded in running by Port Hudson with the Hartford and one other vessel, and, controlling the river between Port Hudson and Vicksburg, rendered essential aid to the land forces in the campaigns against those strongholds. In 1864 he was placed in command of a fleet of 25 vessels and ordered against Forts Morgan and Gaines at the entrance of Mobile Bay. These he attacked at daylight on August 5. Advancing in the face of the enemy's torpedoes, one of which sank the Tecumseh, he silenced the forts with a fierce bombardment, passed into the harbor, and there destroyed a Confederate fleet consisting of an ironclad ram and four gunboats. (See Mobile Bay.) He was raised to the rank of rear admiral in July, 1862, and when forced by ill health to withdraw from service, to that of vice admiral in December, 1864, and to that of admiral in July, 1866, the latter two grades having been expressly created for him by Congress. He made a long cruise in European waters in 1867 and subsequently visited California. Early in 1870 he went to Portsmouth, N. H., where he died. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 383. |