"Who is this Farragut?" So the younger generation of Americans must have
wondered, at the news of late January, 1862. Farragut was to have a flag
in the Gulf and was expected to capture New Orleans. Thus far in the War,
he had done nothing but sit on an obscure retiring board in the Navy
Department at Washington. But Commander David D. Porter knew him, for it
was with Porter's own father in the famous old "Essex" that Farragut as a
mere boy had proved worthy to command a fighting ship. And now it was
Porter who had recommended him for a task considered gravely dangerous by
all, foolhardy by not a few. This was no less than to pass the forts below
New Orleans, defeat a powerful and determined Confederate flotilla,
capture the city, and then sweep up the Mississippi and split the
Confederacy in two. To this Farragut rigidly held himself and the brave
men under him, when, in the dark hour before dawn of April 24, 1862, they
faced the terrible bombardment of the forts and fought their way through
the flames of fire rafts desperately maneuvered by the opposing gunboats.
Next day New Orleans was Farragut's. Leaving it to the co-operating army
under General B. F. Butler, Farragut pushed on up the river, passed and
repassed the fortifications at Vicksburg, but the army needed to drive
home the wedge thus firmly entered by the navy was not yet ready. It was
another year before the sturdy blows of Farragut were effectually
supplemented ashore.
[Illustration: THE MEN WHO DARED--SAILORS ON THE "HARTFORD" AFTER PASSING
THE NEW ORLEANS FORTS