David Glasgow Farragut, born at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tenn., 5 July 1801, entered the Navy as a midshipman 17 December 1810. When only 12 years old, he was given command of a prize ship taken by Essex, and brought her safely to port. Through the years that followed, in one assignment after an other he showed the high ability and devotion to duty which was to allow him in the Civil War to make an overwhelming contribution to victory and to write an immortal page in the history of not only the United States Navy but of military service of all times and nations.

In command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, with his flag in Hartford he disproved the theory that forts ashore held superiority over naval forces, when in April 1862 he ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip and the Chalmette batteries to take the great city and port of New Orleans (a decisive event in the war) and later that year passed the batteries defending Vicksburg. Port Hudson fell to him 9 July 1863, and on 5 August 1864 he won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay, passing through heavy mine fields (the torpedoes of his famous quotation) as well as the opposition of heavy batteries in Forts Morgan and Gaines to defeat the squadron of Admiral Franklin Buchanan.

His country honored its great sailor by creating for him the rank of Admiral, never before used in the United States Navy. Admiral Farragut's last active service was in command of the European Squadron with Franklin as his flagship, and he died at Portsmouth, N.H., 14 August 1870.

(Text courtesy of the USNHC)

 

Admiral David G. Farragut

 

Admiral David G. Farragut

 

Admiral David G. Farragut

 

Portrait of Admiral Farragut passing the forts at Mobile, Alabama in his flagship Hartford.

 

A World War 1 ear recruiting poster featuring Admiral Farragut.

 

The statue by Lavinia Ellen "Vinnie" Ream Hoxie at Farragut Square in Washington D. C. seen around the time
of it's dedication in Apr. 1881.