> barred the door as best she could, and sending her trembling children

into the loft, guarded the entrance with an axe. The Indians thought

discretion the better part of valor, and stole quietly away.



When David was seven years old, the family having moved to New Orleans,

as the father had been appointed sailing master in the navy, the noble

mother died of yellow fever, leaving five children, the youngest an

infant. This was a most severe blow. Fortunately, soon after, an act of

kindness brought its reward. The father of Commodore Porter having died

at the Farragut house, the son determined to adopt one of the

motherless children, if one was willing to leave his home. Little David

was pleased with the uniform, and said promptly that he would go.



Saying good-bye forever to his father, he was taken to Washington, and

after a few months spent in school, at the age of nine years and a half,

was made a midshipman. And now began a life full of hardship, of

adventure, and of brave deeds, which have added lustre to the American

navy, and have made the name of Farragut immortal.



His first cruise was along the coast, in the Essex, after the war of

1812 with Great Britain had begun. They had captured the Alert and

other prizes, and their ship was crowded with prisoners. One night when

the boy lay apparently asleep, the coxswain of the Alert came to his

hammock, pistol in hand. David lay motionless till he passed on, and

then crept noiselessly to the cabin, and informed Captain Porter.

Springing from his cot, he shouted, "Fire! fire!" The seamen rushed on

deck, and the mutineers were in irons before they had recovered from

their amazement. Evidently the boy had inherited some of his mother's

fearlessness.



His second cruise was in the Pacific Ocean, where they encountered a

fearful storm going round Cape Horn. An incident occurred at this time

which showed the mettle of the lad. Though only twelve, he was ordered

by Captain Porter to take a prize vessel to Valparaiso, the captured

captain being required to navigate it. When David requested that the

"maintopsail be filled away," the captain replied that he would shoot

any man who dared to touch a rope without his orders, and then went

below for his pistols. David called one of the crew, told him what had

happened, and what he wanted done. "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the

faithful sailor, as he began to execute the orders. The young midshipman

at once sent word to the captain not to come on deck with his pistols

unless he wished to go overboard. From that moment the boy was master of

the vessel, and admired for his bravery.



The following year,--1814,--while the Essex was off the coast of

Chili, she was attacked by the British ships Phoebe and Cherub.

The battle lasted for two hours and a half, the Phoebe throwing

seven hundred eighteen-pound shots at the Essex.



"I shall never forget," Farragut said years after, "the horrid

impression made upon me at the sight of the first man I had ever seen

killed. It staggered and sickened me at first; but they soon began to

fall so fast that it all appeared like a dream, and produced no effect

upon my nerves.... Soon after this some gun-primers were wanted, and I

was sent after them. In going below, while I was on the ward-room

ladder, the captain of the gun directly opposite the hatchway was struck

full in the face by an eighteen-pound shot, and fell back on me. We

tumbled down the hatch together. I lay for some moments stunned by the

blow, but soon recovered consciousness enough to rush up on deck. The

captain seeing me covered with blood, asked if I was wounded; to which I

replied, 'I believe not, sir.' 'Then,' said he, 'where are the primers?'

This brought me completely to my senses, and I ran below again and

carried the primers on deck."



When Porter had been forced to surrender, David went below to help the

surgeon in dressing wounds. One brave young man, Lieutenant Cowell,

said, "O, Davy, I fear it is all up with me!" He could have been saved,

had his leg been amputated an hour sooner; but when it was proposed to

drop another patient and attend to him, he said, "No, Doctor, none of

that; fair play is a jewel. One man's life is as dear as another's; I

would not cheat any poor fellow out of his turn."



Many brave men died, saying, "Don't give her up! Hurrah for liberty!"

One young Scotchman, whose leg had been shot off, said to his comrades,

"I left my own country and adopted the United States to fight for her. I

hope I have this day proved myself worthy of the country of my adoption.

I am no longer of any use to you or to her; so good-bye!" saying which

he threw himself overboard.



When David was taken a prisoner on board the Phoebe, he could not

refrain from tears at his mortification.



"Never mind, my little fellow," said the captain; "it will be your turn

next, perhaps."



"I hope so," was the reply.



Soon David's pet pig "Murphy" was brought on board, and he immediately

claimed it.



"But," said the English sailor, "you are a prisoner and your pig also."



"We always respect private property," the boy replied, seizing hold of

"Murphy"; and after a vigorous fight, the pet was given to its owner.



On returning to Captain Porter's house at Chester, Pa., David was put at

school for the summer, under a quaint instructor, one of Napoleon's

celebrated Guard, who used no book, but taught the boys about plants and

minerals, and how to climb and swim. In the fall he was placed on a

receiving-ship, but gladly left the wild set of lads for a cruise in the

Mediterranean. Here he had the opportunity of visiting Naples, Pompeii,

and other places of interest, but he encountered much that was harsh and

trying. Commodore C---- sometimes knocked down his own son, and his

son's friend as well,--not a pleasant person to be governed by.



In 1817, Chaplain Folsom of their ship was appointed consul at Tunis. He

loved David as a brother, and begged the privilege of keeping him for a

time, "because," said he to the commodore, "he is entirely destitute of

the aids of fortune and the influence of friends, other than those whom

his character may attach to him." For nearly nine months he remained

with the chaplain, studying French, Italian, English literature, and

mathematics, and developing in manliness and refinement. The Danish

consul showed great fondness for the frank, ardent boy, now sixteen, and

invited him to his house at Carthage. Failing in his health, a horseback

trip toward the interior of the country was recommended, and during the

journey he received a sunstroke, and his eyes were permanently weakened.

All his life, however, he had some one read to him, and thus mitigate

his misfortune.



The time came to go back to duty on the ship, and Chaplain Folsom

clasped the big boy to his bosom, fervently kissing him on each cheek,

and giving him his parting blessing mingled with his tears. Forty years

after, when the young midshipman had become the famous Admiral, he sent

a token of respect and affection to his old friend.



For some years, having been appointed acting lieutenant, he cruised in

the Gulf of Mexico, gaining knowledge which he was glad to use later,

and in the West Indies, where for two years and a half, he says, "I

never owned a bed, but lay down to rest wherever I found the most

comfortable berth." Sometimes he and his seamen pursued pirates who

infested the coast, cutting their way through thornbushes and cactus

plants, with their cutlasses; then burning the houses of these robbers,

and taking their plunder out of their caves. It was an exciting but

wearing life.



After a visit to his old home at New Orleans,--his father had died, and

his sister did not recognize him,--he contracted yellow fever, and lay

ill for some time in a Washington hospital. Perhaps the sailor was

tired of his roving and somewhat lonely life, and now married, at

twenty-two, Miss Susan Marchant of Norfolk, Virginia.



For sixteen years she was an invalid, so that he carried her often in

his arms like a child. Now he took her to New Haven for treatment, and

improved what time he could spare by attending Professor Silliman's

lectures at Yale College. Now he conducted a school on a receiving-ship,

so as to have her with him. "She bore the sickness with unparalleled

resignation and patience," says Farragut in his journal, "affording a

beautiful example of calmness and fortitude." One of her friends in

Norfolk said, "When Captain Farragut dies, he should have a monument

reaching to the skies, made by every wife in the city contributing a

stone to it." How the world admires a brave man with a tender heart!



Farragut was now nearly forty years of age; never pushing himself

forward, honors had come slowly. Three years later, having been made

commandant, he married Miss Virginia Royall, also of Norfolk, Va. At the

beginning of the Mexican War, he offered his services to the Government,

but from indifference, or the jealousy of officials, he was not called

upon. The next twelve years were spent, partly in the Norfolk Navy Yard,

giving weekly lectures on gunnery, preparing a book on ordnance

regulations, and establishing a navy yard on the Pacific Coast. Whatever

he did was done thoroughly and faithfully. When asked by the Navy

Department to express a preference about a position, he said, "I have no

volition in the matter; your duty is to give me orders, mine to obey....

I have made it the rule of my life to ask no official favors, but to

await orders and then obey them."



And now came the turning-point of his life. April 17, 1860, Virginia, by

a vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five, seceded from the United States.

The next morning, Farragut, then at Norfolk, expressed disapproval of

the acts of the convention, and said President Lincoln would be

justified in calling for troops after the Southerners had taken forts

and arsenals. He was soon informed "that a person with those sentiments

could not live in Norfolk."



"Well then, I can live somewhere else," was the calm reply.



Returning home, he announced to his wife that he had determined to

"stick to the flag."



"This act of mine may cause years of separation from your family; so you

must decide quickly whether you will go North or remain here."



She decided at once to go with him, and, hastily collecting a few

articles, departed that evening for Baltimore. That city was in

commotion, the Massachusetts troops having had a conflict with the mob.

He finally secured passage for New York on a canal-boat, and with

limited means rented a cottage at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, for one

hundred and fifty dollars a year. He loved the South, and said, "God

forbid that I should have to raise my hand against her"; but he was

anxious to take part in the war for the Union, and offered his services

to that end.



The Government had an important project in hand. The Mississippi River

was largely in the control of the Confederacy, and was the great highway

for transporting her supplies. New Orleans was the richest city of the

South, receiving for shipment at this time ninety-two million dollars

worth of cotton, and more than twenty-five million dollars worth of

sugar yearly. If this city could be captured, and the river controlled

by the North, the South would be seriously crippled. But the lower

Mississippi was guarded by the strongest forts, Jackson and St. Philip,

which mounted one hundred and fifteen guns, and were garrisoned by

fifteen hundred men. Above the forts were fifteen vessels of the

Confederate fleet, including the ironclad ram, Manassas, and just

below, a heavy iron chain across the river bound together scores of

cypress logs thirty feet long, and four or five feet in diameter, thus

forming an immense obstruction. Sharpshooters were stationed all along

the banks.



Who could be entrusted with such a formidable undertaking as the capture

of this stronghold? Who sufficiently daring, skilful, and loyal? Several

naval officers were considered, but Gideon Welles, Secretary of the

Navy, said, "Farragut is the man." The steam sloop-of-war, Hartford,

of nineteen hundred tons burden, and two hundred twenty-five feet long,

was made ready as his flag-ship. His instructions were, "The certain

capture of the city of New Orleans. The Department and the country

require of you success.... If successful, you open the way to the sea

for the Great West, never again to be closed. The rebellion will be

riven in the centre, and the flag, to which you have been so faithful,

will recover its supremacy in every State."



With a grateful heart that he had been thought fitting for this high

place, and believing in his ability to win success, at sixty-one years

of age he started on his mission, saying, "If I die in the attempt, it

will only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his

duty to his country, and at peace with his God, has played the drama of

life to the best advantage." He took with him six sloops-of-war, sixteen

gunboats, twenty-one schooners, and five other vessels, forty-eight in

all, the fleet carrying over two hundred guns.



April 18, 1862, they had all reached their positions and were ready for

the struggle. For six days and nights the mortars kept up a constant

fire on Fort Jackson, throwing nearly six thousand shells. Many persons

were killed, but the fort did not yield. The Confederates sent down the

river five fire-rafts, flat-boats filled with dry wood, smeared with tar

and turpentine, hoping that these would make havoc among Farragut's

ships; but his crews towed them away to shore, or let them drift out to

sea.



Farragut now made up his mind to pass the forts at all hazards. It was

a dangerous and heroic step. If he won, New Orleans must fall; if he

failed--but he must not fail. Two gunboats were sent to cut the chain

across the river. All night long the commander watched with intense

anxiety the return of the boats, which under a galling fire had

succeeded in breaking the chain, and thus making a passage for the

fleet.



At half past three o'clock on the morning of April 24, the fleet was

ready to start. The Cayuga led off the first division of eight

vessels. Both forts opened fire. In ten minutes she had passed beyond

St. Philip only to be surrounded by eleven Confederate gunboats. The

Varuna came to her relief, but was rammed by two Southern boats, and

sunk in fifteen minutes. The Mississippi encountered the enemy's ram,

Manassas, riddled her with shot, and set her on fire, so that she

drifted below the forts and blew up.



Then the centre division, led by the Hartford, passed into the

terrific fire. First she grounded in avoiding a fire-raft; then a

Confederate ram pushed a raft against her, setting her on fire; but

Farragut gave his orders as calmly as though not in the utmost peril.

The flames were extinguished, and she steamed on, doing terrible

execution with her shells. Then came the last division, led by the

Sciota, and Commander Porter's gunboats. In the darkness, lighted only

by the flashes of over two hundred guns, the fleet had cut its way to

victory, losing one hundred and eighty-four in killed and wounded.



"In a twinkling the flames had risen

Half-way to maintop and mizzen,

Darting up the shrouds like snakes!

Ah, how we clanked at the brakes!

And the deep steam-pumps throbbed under

Sending a ceaseless glow.

Our top-men--a dauntless crowd--

Swarmed in rigging and shroud;

There ('twas a wonder!)

The burning ratlins and strands

They quenched with their bare hard hands.

But the great guns below

Never silenced their thunder.



"At last, by backing and sounding,

When we were clear of grounding,

And under headway once more,

The whole Rebel fleet came rounding

The point. If we had it hot before,

'Twas now, from shore to shore,

One long, loud thundering roar,--

Such crashing, splintering, and pounding

And smashing as you never heard before.



"But that we fought foul wrong to wreck,

And to save the land we loved so well,

You might have deemed our long gun-deck

Two hundred feet of hell!

For all above was battle,

Broadside, and blaze, and rattle,

Smoke and thunder alone;

But down in the sick-bay,

Where our wounded and dying lay,

There was scarce a sob or a moan.



"And at last, when the dim day broke,

And the sullen sun awoke,

Drearily blinking

O'er the haze and the cannon-smoke,

That even such morning dulls,

There were thirteen traitor hulls

On fire and sinking!"



--Henry Howard Brownell



* * * * *



"Thus," says the son of Farragut, in his admirable biography, "was

accomplished a feat in naval warfare which had no precedent, and which

is still without a parallel except the one furnished by Farragut

himself, two years later, at Mobile. Starting with seventeen wooden

vessels, he had passed with all but three of them, against the swift

current of a river but half a mile wide, between two powerful earthworks

which had long been prepared for him, his course impeded by blazing

rafts, and immediately thereafter had met the enemy's fleet of fifteen

vessels, two of them ironclads, and either captured or destroyed every

one of them. And all this with a loss of but one ship from his

squadron."



The following day, he wrote:--



"My dearest wife and boy,--I am so agitated that I can scarcely write,

and shall only tell you that it has pleased Almighty God to preserve my

life through a fire such as the world has scarcely known. He has

permitted me to make a name for my dear boy's inheritance, as well as

for my comfort and that of my family."



The next day, at eleven o'clock in the morning, by order of Farragut,

"the officers and crews of the fleet return thanks to Almighty God for

His great goodness and mercy in permitting us to pass through the events

of the last two days with so little loss of life and blood."



April 29, a battalion of two hundred and fifty marines and two

howitzers, manned by sailors from the Hartford, marched through the

streets of New Orleans, hoisted the Union flag in place of the

Confederate on the city hall, and held possession till General Butler

arrived with his troops on May 1. After the fall of the city, the forts

surrendered to Porter.



From here Farragut went to Vicksburg with sixteen vessels, "the

Hartford," he says "like an old hen taking care of her chickens," and

passed the batteries with fifteen killed and thirty wounded. Three

months later he received the thanks of Congress on parchment for the

gallant services of himself and his men, and was made Rear-Admiral. He

remained on the river and gulf for some months, doing effective work in

sustaining the blockade, and destroying the salt-works along the coast.

When the memorable passage of the batteries at Port Hudson was made,

where one hundred and thirteen were killed or wounded, the Hartford

taking the lead, his idolized boy, Loyall, stood beside him. When urged

by the surgeon to let his son go below to help about the wounded,

because it was safer, he replied, "No; that will not do. It is true our

only child is on board by chance, and he is not in the service; but,

being here, he will act as one of my aids, to assist in conveying my

orders during the battle, and we will trust in Providence." Neither

would the lad listen to the suggestion; for he "wanted to be stationed

on deck and see the fight." Farragut soon sent him back to his mother;

for he said, "I am too devoted a father to have my son with me in

troubles of this kind. The anxieties of a father should not be added to

those of a commander."



Every day was full of exciting incident. The admiral needing some

despatches taken down the river, his secretary, Mr. Gabaudan,

volunteered to bear the message. A small dug-out was covered with twigs,

so as to resemble floating trees. At night he lay down in his little

craft, with paddle and pistol by his side, and drifted with the current.

Once a Confederate boat pulled out into the stream to investigate the

somewhat large tree, but returned to report that, "It was only a log."

He succeeded in reaching General Banks, who had taken the place of

General Butler, and when the fleet returned to New Orleans, he was

warmly welcomed on board by his admiring companions.



Farragut now returned to New York for a short time, where all were

anxious to meet the Hero of New Orleans, and to see the historic

Hartford, which had been struck two hundred and forty times by shot

and shell in nineteen months' service. The Union League Club presented

him a beautiful sword, the scabbard of gold and silver, and the hilt set

in brilliants.



His next point of attack was Mobile Bay. Under cover of the forts,

Morgan, Gaines, and Powell, the blockade was constantly broken. A good

story is told of the capture of one of these vessels, whose merchant

captain was brought before Farragut. He proved to be an old

acquaintance, who said he was bound for Matamoras on the Rio Grande! The

admiral expressed amazement that he should be three hundred miles out of

his course, and said good-naturedly, "I am sorry for you; but we shall

have to hold you for your thundering bad navigation!"



And now occurred the most brilliant battle of his career. Aug. 4, 1864,

he wrote to his wife,--



"I am going into Mobile Bay in the morning, if God is my leader, as I

hope He is, and in Him I place my trust. God bless and preserve you, my

darling, and my dear boy, if anything should happen to me.



"Your devoted and affectionate husband, who never for one moment forgot

his love, duty, or fidelity to you, his devoted and best of wives."



At half past five on the morning of Aug. 5, fourteen ships and four

monitors, headed by the Brooklyn, because she had apparatus for

picking up torpedoes, moved into action. Very soon the Tecumseh, the

monitor abreast of the Brooklyn, went down with nearly every soul on

board, sunk by a torpedo. When the Brooklyn saw this disaster, she

began to back.



"What's the trouble?" was shouted through the trumpet.



"Torpedoes."



The supreme moment had come for decision. The grand old admiral offered

up this prayer in his heart, "O God, direct me what to do. Shall I go

on?" And a voice seemed to answer, "Go on!"



"Go ahead!" he shouted to his captain on the Hartford; "give her all

the steam you've got!" And like a thing of life she swept on over the

torpedoes to the head of the fleet, where she became the special target

of the enemy. Her timbers crashed, and her "wounded came pouring

down,--cries never to be forgotten." Twice the brave admiral was lashed

to the rigging by his devoted men, lest in his exposed position he fall

overboard if struck by a ball. The fleet lost three hundred and

thirty-five men, but Farragut gained the day. When all was over, and he

looked upon the dead laid out on the port side of his ship, he wept like

a child. The prisoners captured in the defences of Mobile were one

thousand four hundred and sixty-four, with one hundred and four guns.



On his return to New York he was welcomed with the grandest

demonstrations. Crowds gathered at the Battery, a public reception was

given him at the Custom House, and fifty thousand dollars with which to

buy a house in New York. Congress made him Vice-Admiral. Prominent

politicians asked him to become a candidate for the Presidency; but he

refused, saying, "I have no ambition for anything but what I am,--an

admiral. I have worked hard for three years, have been in eleven fights,

and am willing to fight eleven more if necessary, but when I go home I

desire peace and comfort."



At Hastings-on-the-Hudson, the streets were arched with the words "New

Orleans," "Mobile," "Jackson," "St. Philip," etc. Boston gave him a

welcome reception at Faneuil Hall, Oliver Wendell Holmes reading a poem

on the occasion. At Cambridge, two hundred Harvard students took his

horses from the carriage, and attaching ropes to it, drew him through

the streets. On July 25, 1866, the rank of admiral was created by

Congress, and Farragut was appointed to the place. Honors, and

well-deserved ones, had come at last to the brave midshipman.



The next year, in command of the European squadron, accompanied by Mrs.

Farragut, who went by special permission of the President, he visited

France, Russia, and other countries.



Napoleon III. welcomed him to the Tuileries; the Grand Duke Constantine

of Russia, Duke of Edinburgh, and Victor Emmanuel each made him their

guest; he dined with the King of Denmark and the King of Greece, and

Queen Victoria received him at the Osborne House. Two years later he

visited the navy yard on the Pacific Coast, which he had established

years before.



He died Aug. 14, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine, universally honored and

regretted. Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars for his statue

on Farragut Square, Washington, and the work has been executed by Vinnie

Ream Hoxie.



Success was not an accident with the Christian admiral. It was the

result of devotion to duty, real bravery, and a life distinguished by

purity of character and the highest sense of honor.