|
David Porter, one of the Navy's finest officers,
befriended the Farragut family through an unusual chain of events in
which the Farraguts rescued Porter's unconscious father from the deck of
a drifting boat. When the elder Porter passed away, David was grateful to
the family for taking care of his father and offered to take young James
and train him as a naval officer. At the time it was not uncommon for
parents to place a child with someone who could train them in a career.
Hence, James Glasgow Farragut came under the guardianship of David Porter
and changed his name to David G. Farragut.
David
followed his adopted father to the sea at the tender age of eight and
received his first naval appointment as midshipman at large at the age of
nine and a half. At age eleven he saw his first combat and even commanded
a vessel at age twelve! The young sailor had seen a lot during his four
years at sea, but his greatest achievement was yet to come.
"I
am to have a Flag in the Gulf, and the rest depends on me."
Fifty
years later at the outbreak of the Civil War, David Farragut had a
difficult decision to make. He was born in Tennessee,
raised in Louisiana, and lived in Virginia, yet he
felt more devoted to the country he had served for more than five
decades. He decided to join the Union
and moved his family north. In January 1862, Farragut was named Flag
Officer in command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron with instructions
to enter the Mississippi and capture New Orleans. He was
placed in command of eighteen wooden vessels including his flagship HARTFORD, a fleet of
mortar boats, and 700 men.
To
the objection of his stepbrother David Dixon Porter, who was in charge of
the mortar boat flotilla, Flag Officer Farragut made the decision to run
past Forts Jackson and St. Philip to take the city of New Orleans. To prepare the ships to
run past the forts, the crews crisscrossed the hulls with great chains
until they were almost as well protected as the ironclads. Further, since
he planned to pass the forts at night, Farragut had the hulls covered
with mud from the Mississippi
to make them less visible from the shore and had the decks painted white
so that needed objects would stand out clearly. He even had tall trees
lashed to the masts of his vessels so that the enemy would think they
were trees on the opposite bank!
Farragut's
strategy worked. The commander described the intense passage: "The smoke was so dense that it was only
now and then we could see anything but the flash of the cannon ... The
passing of Forts Jackson and St. Philip was one of the most awful sights
I ever saw." His own vessel, the HARTFORD, was disabled when a raft set
afire rammed the flagship and flames damaged the masts and rigging.
Nevertheless, the fleet safely reached New Orleans and took possession of the
city on April 28, 1862.
"I mean to be whipped or to whip
my enemy, and not be scared to death"
In
May of 1862, Farragut attempted to subdue the city of Vicksburg,
located about 400 river miles above New
Orleans, but his bombardment was unsuccessful.
He did not have enough guns in his fleet to overwhelm the city. Plus, Vicksburg's 200-foot
river bluffs were so high that many of his guns could not get sufficient
elevation to hit the Confederate defenses. Fearing the receding waters of
the Mississippi
might strand his oceangoing warships in the summer months, Farragut
reluctantly decided to withdraw from the river city. He left six gunboats
below Vicksburg and returned to New Orleans.
Upon
his return to the Crescent City, Farragut began organizing a second, stronger
expedition against the "Gibraltar
of the West." His fleet arrived below the Vicksburg bluffs once again on June 25,
1862, and began preparations for a second bombardment. Farragut then
received news that Charles H. Davis, commander of the Western Flotilla,
had finally captured Fort Pillow and Memphis
and was now only 20 miles north of Vicksburg.
Consequently, Farragut decided to run his fleet north past Vicksburg, just as he had done at Forts Jackson and
St. Philip, and rendezvous with Davis.
At
the appointed hour of 0200 on June 28, 1862, Farragut raised two red
lanterns on the mast of the HARTFORD
as a signal for the fleet to proceed. The ships were spotted at 0400 and Vicksburg's 29 heavy
guns were answered by the guns of Farragut's fleet. All of Farragut's
ships but three made it through and none were sunk; however, some were badly hit, including the HARTFORD. The
captain's cabin was blown apart by a shell just seconds after Farragut
had moved to another part of the ship!
Although
running the batteries was a gallant act, Farragut's juncture with Davis did little to bring about the subjugation of Vicksburg. It was
clear a combined naval and land attack would be necessary to subdue the
"Gibraltar of the West."
Before
Farragut withdrew his fleet from Vicksburg
a second time, he had an encounter with the Confederate ironclad ARKANSAS. Launched
at Yazoo City
and commanded by Isaac Brown, the ARKANSAS
bravely plunged into the midst of the thirty-eight Union warships
anchored above Vicksburg
in mid-July 1862. Brown's attack was aided by an element of surprise, and
the fact there were so many Union ships they had very little room in
which to maneuver. As a result, Farragut's warships were only able to
bring a few guns to bear at a time against the formidable ironclad.
During the fighting, the ARKANSAS caused
serious damage to the HARTFORD
and Farragut was furious that a makeshift enemy ironclad had steamed
right through his fleet. He had enough of the pesky ironclad. Fearing
once again his vessels would be stranded due to dropping river levels,
Farragut decided to withdraw from Vicksburg
and sailed south. The withdrawal of the Union fleet from Vicksburg in July of
1862 closed the first phase of Union naval operations against the city.
"Damn
the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"
Two
years later, in 1864, Rear Admiral Farragut was summoned from his New
York home to serve his country once more in leading an attack on Mobile
Bay, the last Confederate stronghold in the Gulf of Mexico. Mobile Bay
was not only protected by Fort Morgan and a fleet of wooden vessels, but also
by the formidable Confederate Ram TENNESSEE
and a field of explosive mines called torpedoes. Undaunted, Farragut
readied his fleet for battle. Using a strategy that had worked before, he
ordered his wooden ships lashed together in pairs, one large and one
small. In this manner, if the larger frigate was disabled in battle, the
smaller vessel could tow it into safety.
Farragut's
fleet of wooden ships, along with four small ironclad monitors, began the
attack on Mobile
Bay early in the
morning of August 5, 1864. When the smoke of battle became so thick that
he couldn't see, Farragut climbed the rigging of the HARTFORD and lashed himself near the
top of the mainsail to get a better view. It wasn't long before the
TECUMSEH, one of the monitors leading the way, struck a torpedo and sank
in a matter of minutes. In a state of confusion, the fleet came to a halt
in front of the powerful guns of Fort Morgan.
Realizing the fleet was reluctant to move forward due to the "infernal
machines," Rear Admiral Farragut rallied his men to victory,
shouting: "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"
The
Union fleet steamed ahead through the minefield, blasted Fort Morgan,
and captured the Confederate ironclad TENNESSEE. Thus, Mobile Bay
fell into Union hands in one of the most decisive naval victories of the
Civil War.
The
Battle of Mobile Bay would be Farragut's last. Overcome with fatigue he
returned to New York
in December 1864 a national hero. In 1866, Farragut became the first person
in the history of the United States Navy to be awarded the rank of
Admiral. Two years late, in 1868, he was even asked run for the office of
President of the United
States, but replied, "I hasten to assure you that I have
never for one moment entertained the idea of political life."
Farragut would have only two years to live. The first Admiral of the Navy
died on August 14, 1870, at the age of 69. His funeral procession in New York City
included 10,000 soldiers and sailors and was headed by President Ulysses
S. Grant. A statue of Admiral Farragut was erected in the heart of our
nation's capital known as Farragut
Square. It remains a lasting tribute to the
most distinguished naval officer of the Civil War.
|
