David Glasgow Farragut was an American sailor. He was born in 1801 and died in 1870. He entered the US navy at the age of nine. In the War of 1812, while a mere boy, he was intrusted with important missions; but in the long period of peace he found little opportunity for distinction. A Southerner by birth, he threw in his lot with the Union, and toward the end of the first year's fighting in the war he was assigned to important command. He had charge of the flotilla in the approach to New Orleans in April, 1862; his fame was founded on the passage of the river past the forts on April the 24th, which caused the fall of the city and its delivery into the hands of the Federals under Butler. On June the 28th he ran the batteries of Vicksburg, and the following year, having meanwhile received the rank of rear-admiral, he contributed to the fall of Port Hudson and the final opening of the river. The greatest event in David Farragut's life, and one of the greatest naval battles of the time, was the Battle of Mobile Bay on August the 5th, 1864. David Farragut's oversight of the contest while lashed to the mast of his flag-ship, the Hartford became one of the most familiar episodes of the war. The American office of vice-admiral was specially created for him in December, 1864, and that of admiral in 1866. Research David Farragut
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