David Farragut

David Farragut was the first admiral in the United States Navy and won the two most important naval actions of the Civil War. Born near Knoxville in 1801 to a Spanish-born officer from Menorca, he was taken in after his mother's death by Commander David Porter, whose name he adopted in place of his own. He was warranted a midshipman at nine. At twelve, during the War of 1812, he was given command of a captured prize vessel and sailed it into port — an episode that is well documented and still remarkable. He served for nearly fifty years without a major war. He was living in Norfolk, Virginia in 1861 and, when the state seceded, told his neighbours they would regret it and moved his family north the same day. His loyalty was doubted for months because of his southern residence and his Virginian wife. In April 1862 he was given the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and ordered to take New Orleans, the Confederacy's largest city and port. He ran his fleet past Forts Jackson and St Philip at night under heavy fire, bypassing a siege the army expected to take months, and the city fell without a fight. At Mobile Bay in August 1864 the channel was mined with what were then called torpedoes and covered by Fort Morgan. When the monitor Tecumseh struck one and sank, the line hesitated. Farragut, lashed to the rigging of the Hartford to see over the smoke, ordered the fleet forward with words remembered as damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Congress created the ranks of vice admiral and admiral for him. He died in 1870.

• Lived: 1801 CE – 1870 CE
• Nationality: American
• Roles: admiral, naval_commander