David Farragut: the first admiral of the US Navy

David Farragut went to sea at nine, commanded a captured ship at twelve, and spent half a century waiting for the war that made him famous. When it came, this Southern-born officer stayed with the Union, and in two great battles, at New Orleans in 1862 and Mobile Bay in 1864, instead of battering the forts into submission first, he ran his fleet past them. The United States Navy created the ranks of rear admiral, vice admiral and admiral for him.¹

Early life

He was born James Glasgow Farragut on 5 July 1801 near Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Jorge Farragut, was a Spanish-born seaman. In 1806 or 1807 the family moved to New Orleans, where his mother died in 1808.²

Soon afterwards the boy was taken in by David Porter, a naval officer who became his guardian and, in Britannica's word, adopted him. On 17 December 1810, at the age of nine, he was appointed a midshipman, and he took the name David in Porter's honor; the Tennessee Encyclopedia dates the change to 1810, the American Battlefield Trust to 1812.³

A boy at sea, 1811 to 1814

In 1811 he sailed with Porter in the frigate Essex, and in the War of 1812 the Essex took so many British prizes that Farragut, aged twelve, was put in command of one of them.⁴

Half a century of service, 1815 to 1861

The long peace that followed gave him routine service at sea and ashore and slow promotion; he became a commander only in 1841. In 1824 he married Susan Caroline Marchant of Norfolk, Virginia, who died in December 1840, and in 1843 he married Virginia Loyall, also of a Norfolk family. Their only child, Loyall Farragut, was born in 1844.⁵

When Virginia seceded in April 1861, Farragut, Southern-born and married into a Virginia family, chose the Union. He left Norfolk the day after the secession vote and moved his family north to New York.⁶

New Orleans, 1862

In December 1861 he was chosen to command the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, with orders to enter the Mississippi and take New Orleans, a port through which the South received much of its war supplies. The way upriver was barred by Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The plan was to reduce the forts first by mortar fire, and from 18 April 1862 mortar boats bombarded them for six days. Farragut had a bolder idea.⁷ › The Commanders of the American Civil War

In the dark early hours of 24 April he led his ships in single file past the forts under heavy fire. Most of the fleet got through, fourteen of seventeen vessels by Hewitt's count, and it inflicted heavy losses on the Confederate river squadron above the forts. On 25 April Farragut's ships lay off New Orleans, and the city surrendered; the cut-off forts gave up a few days later.⁸

In the summer of 1862 Congress thanked him and he was made a rear admiral, the first officer of the US Navy to hold that rank.⁹

The Mississippi, 1862 to 1863

Farragut pushed upriver and in the summer of 1862 ran past the batteries at Vicksburg, but ships alone could not take the city and he withdrew. On the night of 14 to 15 March 1863 he tried to force the batteries at Port Hudson. Only the flagship Hartford and the gunboat Albatross got through, and Hewitt counts the attempt a failure; yet the two ships helped cut Confederate traffic on the river while Ulysses S. Grant closed in on Vicksburg. Port Hudson surrendered on 9 July 1863, five days after Vicksburg.¹⁰

Mobile Bay, 1864

His last great fight was for Mobile Bay in Alabama, guarded by Fort Morgan, a line of mines, then called torpedoes, that forced ships to pass close under the fort's guns, and the Confederate ironclad Tennessee. On 5 August 1864 his fleet entered the bay in two columns, monitors leading. The monitor Tecumseh struck a mine and sank in seconds, and the wooden Brooklyn ahead of the flagship stopped, throwing the line into confusion under the guns of the fort.¹¹ › The Battle of Mobile Bay, 1864

Farragut took the Hartford past the Brooklyn and straight across the minefield, and the rest of the fleet followed. What he said is told in different words. Hewitt and the American Battlefield Trust quote "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells! Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!", and the Trust and the Tennessee Encyclopedia treat the phrase as reported rather than recorded. The mines did not explode under the Hartford.¹²

Inside the bay the Tennessee came out to fight. After a hard battle in which it was rammed again and again, it surrendered. The forts, now cut off, fell one by one: Fort Gaines on 7 August and Fort Morgan, the last, on 23 August.¹³

Command style

Farragut's battles were won by nerve. At New Orleans he set aside the cautious plan of reducing the forts first and ran past them; at Mobile Bay he took his own flagship through the minefield when the column stopped. Hewitt quotes his own creed, "I will attack regardless of consequences, and never turn back," and describes an efficient administrator with an almost lust for combat.¹⁴

Hewitt also finds flaws. He judges Farragut's strategy flawless except at Port Hudson, but notes that at both New Orleans and Mobile Bay he changed the order of his fleet to please subordinates, at the cost of a ship each time. At Mobile Bay the Hartford had been meant to lead and was placed second, behind the Brooklyn, at the captains' request.¹⁵

Later life and death

Poor health ended his active service after Mobile Bay, and in December 1864 he came home to New York. That month Congress created the rank of vice admiral and he was the first to hold it; on 26 July 1866 he became the first full admiral of the US Navy, a rank created for him.¹⁶

From 1867 to 1868 he commanded the European Squadron on a cruise of goodwill to the seaports of the great powers. Weakened by heart attacks in 1869 and 1870, he died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 14 August 1870, at the age of sixty-nine.¹⁷

Legacy and memory

Farragut is remembered as the Union's great naval commander and the man for whom the Navy's highest ranks were made. His battles helped split the Confederacy: after the fall of New Orleans, Vicksburg and Port Hudson the whole Mississippi was in Federal hands, and at Mobile Bay his fleet closed the bay to Confederate shipping. Britannica calls Mobile Bay the capstone of his career.¹⁸

Read the full story of the Battle of Mobile Bay, see how the river war ended at Vicksburg, compare it with the greatest naval battles in history, or meet the commanders of the American Civil War.