FARRAGUT. 79 



19. DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT. 



DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT was born at Campbell's Station, near Knox- 

 ville, Tennessee, on July 5, 1801. He spent a hardy and adventurous boyhood, 

 first in Tennessee and then near New Orleans. An intimate friendship sprang 

 up between the Farragut family and Commander David Porter, and the latter 

 adopted young Farragut, since at the age of 8 years and shortly after the death 

 of his mother he seemed to want to go to sea. He quickly became "fond of this 

 adventurous sort of life. " (Farragut, L., 1879, p. 11.) After a year of study in the 

 East he received a midshipman's commission, December 1810. His first voyage 

 was made on the Essex, of which his foster-father was captain, and he served on 

 that ship during her romantic and fateful cruise in the Pacific in the War of 1812. 

 He was in the bloody battle off Valparaiso when the ship was lost. Returning 

 to the United States under parole, he studied for some months and in April 1815 

 sailed to Algiers. He soon returned to America, but in the spring of 1816 he sailed 

 again for the Mediterranean, where he remained until 1820, becoming lieutenant 

 at the end of that same year. He distinguished himself in encounters with pirates 

 in the West Indies and showed decided ability and originality as a teacher on a 

 receiving-ship. He served as an officer at the Norfolk navy yard and was execu- 

 tive officer of the Pennsylvania during the Mexican war. To him was assigned, 

 in 1854, the establishment of the Mare Island navy yard, California. He was in 

 San Francisco bay during the activities of the vigilance committee and steered 

 a course of wisdom that tended to calm an excited population. After a year or 

 two of service in the Gulf of Mexico, watching a revolution in Mexico, he returned 

 to Norfolk, where he was stationed when Virginia seceded. He remained loyal. 

 In 1862 he was appointed to the command of the Western Gulf blockading squad- 

 ron, whose secret purpose was to open up the Mississippi from the gulf. He ran 

 his fleet by the Forts Jackson and St. Philip, in the face of a terrific fire and 

 with relatively slight loss. A few weeks later he carried his flotilla past the bat- 

 teries at Vicksburg. He was now commissioned rear admiral. In March 1863 

 he passed the strongly placed batteries at Port Hudson in his flagship Hartford, 

 but, with the exception of one gunboat, the remainder of the squadron was unable 

 to follow. He remained between Port Hudson and Vicksburg, blockading the 

 mouth of the Red river, until the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson in July 1863. 

 After a few months in New York for recuperation and the repair of his ships, he 

 departed, in January 1864, on the Hartford, to blockade Mobile. On August 5, 

 1864, he entered Mobile bay, despite strong fortifications and mines and the power- 

 ful ironclad Tennessee. A torpedo sunk the Federal monitor Tecumseh, which was in 

 the van, and Farragut unhesitatingly seized the line at the critical moment; lashed 

 to the mast, he ordered his flagship at full speed, taking the lead. The mines 

 failed to explode and the bay was safely entered, though at the loss of many men, 

 especially on the flagship. The British Army and Navy Gazette called him "the 

 first naval officer of his day, as far as actual reputation, won by skill, courage, and 

 hard fighting, goes." In the battle of Mobile bay shells were freely used instead 

 of solid shot. A few days later all the forts were surrendered, with hundreds of 

 men and scores of guns. 



After the war Farragut had command for a time of the European squadron; 

 he was voted the rank of admiral by Congress in 1866, and then retired from 

 active service. He died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1870. 



