David Farragut went to sea as a child and was in his sixties when he fought his most famous battle. A Southerner who stayed loyal to the Union, he helped open the Mississippi to Union ships and closed Mobile Bay, the last major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi.
A boy at sea
James Glasgow Farragut was born in 1801 near Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of a Minorcan-born veteran of the American Revolution1. After his mother's death he was taken into the care of the naval officer David Porter and, around the age of nine, was appointed a midshipman2. In the War of 1812 he sailed with Porter aboard USS Essex and, still a boy, is said to have been put in charge of a captured prize ship3. He later took the name David in honour of his guardian.3
Loyal to the Union
Farragut spent the next half century in the Navy. When the Civil War began in 1861 he was living in Norfolk, Virginia2, but he refused to side with the Confederacy and moved north with his family.
New Orleans
In 1862 he was given command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and the task of taking New Orleans, the South's largest city. In the early hours of 24 April 18621 his ships ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the lower Mississippi and fought through the Confederate river flotilla. New Orleans fell within days, a heavy blow to the Confederacy. That July Congress created the rank of rear admiral, and Farragut was the first to receive it.
The Mississippi
Farragut pushed upriver and in 1862 ran his ships past the batteries at Vicksburg, but naval power alone could not take the city. In March 1863 he tried to force the guns of Port Hudson; only his flagship Hartford and one other vessel got through, but they helped cut Confederate traffic on the river while Grant closed in on Vicksburg.
Damn the torpedoes
On 5 August 1864 Farragut led his fleet into Mobile Bay past Fort Morgan and a field of mines, then called torpedoes. When the monitor Tecumseh struck a mine and sank, the line faltered. Farragut, who had been lashed to the rigging of the Hartford to see above the smoke4, pressed on through the minefield. He is traditionally credited with the words "Damn the torpedoes!", although accounts of exactly what he said differ4. His fleet then forced the surrender of the ironclad CSS Tennessee5. Read more in our account of the Battle of Mobile Bay.
First admiral
In December 1864 Farragut became the Navy's first vice admiral, and in 1866 its first full admiral3. He commanded the European Squadron on a goodwill cruise in 1867 and 1868 and died in 1870 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Sources and notes
Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.
- Chester G. Hearn, Admiral David Glasgow Farragut: The Civil War Years (Naval Institute Press, 1998). ↩ a b
- Tennessee Encyclopedia (Leo J. Goodsell), “David Glasgow Farragut” ↩ a b
- American Battlefield Trust, “David G. Farragut” ↩ a b c
- American Battlefield Trust, “Damn the Torpedoes!” ↩ a b
- Jack Friend, West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay (Naval Institute Press, 2004). ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “David Farragut”
- Wikipedia, “David Farragut”
- Wikipedia, “Battle of Mobile Bay”
- Wikipedia, “Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip”