| David Glasgow Farragut |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT DAVID FARRAGUT | |
| united states navy admirals | |
| farragut, david | |
| union navy admirals | |
| people from knoxville, tennessee | |
| scottish-americans | |
| spanish-americans | |
| 1801 births | |
| 1870 deaths | |
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Admiral David Glasgow Farragut ( July 5 , 1801 – August 14 , 1870 ) was the first senior officer of the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War . He was the first Rear Admiral , Vice Admiral , and full Admiral of the Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his possibly apocryphal order at the Battle Of Mobile Bay , usually paraphrased: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!".Davis, p. 682. The ''Reuters'' EARLY LIFE AND NAVAL CAREER Farragut was born to Jorge and Elizabeth Farragut at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville , Tennessee , where his father was serving as a Cavalry officer in the Tennessee Militia . Jorge Farragut Mesquida (1755 – 1817), a Spanish merchant captain from Minorca , had previously joined the American Revolutionary cause. David's birth name was ''James'', but it was changed in 1812, following his adoption by future naval Captain David Porter in 1808 (which made him the foster brother of future Civil War Admiral David Dixon Porter ). David Farragut entered the Navy as a Midshipman on December 17 , 1810 . In the War Of 1812 , when only 12 years old, he was given command of a Prize Ship taken by USS ''Essex'' and brought her safely to port. He was wounded and captured during the cruise of the ''Essex'' by HMS ''Phoebe'' in Valparaiso Bay, Chile, on March 28 , 1814 , but was exchanged in April 1815. Through the years that followed, in one assignment after another, he showed the high ability and devotion to duty that would allow him to make a great contribution to the Union victory in the Civil War and to write a famous page in the history of the United States Navy. CIVIL WAR In command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron , with his flag on the USS ''Hartford'' , in April 1862 he ran past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip and the Chalmette, Louisiana , batteries to take the city and port of New Orleans, Louisiana , on April 29 that year, a decisive event in the war. His country honored its great sailor after New Orleans by creating for him the rank of Rear Admiral on July 16 , 1862 , a rank never before used in the U.S. Navy. (Before this time, the American Navy had resisted the rank of admiral, preferring the term "flag officer", to separate it from the traditions of the European navies.) Later that year he passed the batteries defending Vicksburg, Mississippi . Farragut had no real success at Vicksburg, where one makeshift Confederate Ironclad forced his Flotilla of 38 ships to withdraw in July 1862. He was a very aggressive commander but not always cooperative. At the Siege Of Port Hudson the plan was Farragut’s flotilla would pass by the guns of the Confederate stronghold with the help of a diversionary land attack by the Army Of The Gulf , commanded by General Nathaniel Banks , to commence at 8:00 am March 15, 1863. Farragut unilaterally decided to move the time table up to 9:00 pm, March 14th and initiate his run past the guns before Union ground forces were in position. By doing so the uncoordinated attack allowed the Confederates to concentrate on Farragut’s flotilla and inflict heavy damage on his warships. Farragut’s battle group was forced to retreat with only two ships able to pass the heavy cannon of the Confederate bastion. After surviving the gauntlet Farragut played no further part in the battle for Port Hudson and General Banks was left to continue the siege without advantage of naval support. The Union Army made two major attacks on the fort and both were repulsed with heavy losses. Farragut’s flotilla was splintered yet was able to blockade the mouth of the Red River with the two remaining warships, but not efficiently patrol the section of the Mississippi between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. Farragut’s decision thus proved costly to the Union Navy and the Union Army which suffered the highest casualty rate of the Civil War at the Battle Of Port Hudson . Vicksburg surrendered on July 4 , 1863, leaving Port Hudson as the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River . General Banks accepted the surrender of the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson on July 9, 1863 ending the longest siege in US military history. Control of the Mississippi River was the centerpiece of Union strategy to win the war and with the surrender of Port Hudson the Confederacy was now severed in two. On August 5 , 1864 , Farragut won a great victory in the Battle Of Mobile Bay . Mobile was then the Confederacy 's last major port open on the Gulf Of Mexico . The bay was heavily mined (tethered Naval Mine s were known as ''torpedoes'' at the time). Farragut ordered his fleet to charge the bay. When the monitor USS ''Tecumseh'' struck a mine and sank the others began to pull back. |
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