President Abraham Lincoln considered the appointment
of David Glasgow Farragut as commander of the West
Gulf Blockading Squadron the best one he made during
the Civil War. Ordered to capture New Orleans and
thus gain control of the Mississippi River, Farragut
soon proved the merit of the contemporary description
of his “great superiority of character, clear
perception of duty, and firm resolution on the performance
of it.” Sailing in the flagship USS Hartford
on April 24, 1862, he led his fleet of seventeen
vessels in a successful run by the Confederate defenses,
engaged and defeated the enemy flotilla, and captured
New Orleans.
Rear Admiral Farragut spent the next two years
blockading the Gulf Coast and maintaining Union
control over the lower Mississippi before preparing
for the capture of the Mobile Bay defenses. Then,
on August 5, 1864, as his force of four ironclads
and fourteen wooden vessels steamed down the narrow
torpedo-lined channel, the ironclad Tecumseh
struck a mine and sank. Shouting “Damn the
torpedoes!” Farragut, again in the Hartford,
forged ahead of the hesitant fleet. Soon all of
his remaining ships safely passed the enemy forts.
The Confederate flotilla was dispersed, and by
month’s end the harbor defenses had surrendered.
This, the major victory of Farragut’s naval
career, earned him the rank of vice admiral. Two
years later, in declining health, he was commissioned
admiral.
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