Farragut, David G

Farragut, David G(lasgow)

David Farragut, daguerreotype.

(credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born July 5, 1801, near Knoxville, Tenn., U.S.—died Aug. 14, 1870, Portsmouth, N.H.) U.S. naval officer. He served in the War of 1812 and received his first command in 1824. During the American Civil War he commanded the Union blockade of the western Gulf of Mexico; in the Battle of New Orleans he captured the port through which the Confederacy received much of its war supplies. In 1863 he helped secure victory at the Battle of Vicksburg, bringing the Mississippi River under Union control. In 1864 he led a successful attack in the Battle of Mobile Bay, sending his ships across a blockade of mines (“torpedoes”) with the order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” He became a full admiral in 1866.