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ADMIRAL FARRAGUT




  Great Commanders

  _EDITED BY JAMES GRANT WILSON_

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The Great Commanders Series.

EDITED BY GENERAL JAMES GRANT WILSON.

 Admiral Farragut.        By Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N.
 General Taylor.          By General O. O. Howard, U. S. A.
 General Jackson.         By James Parton.
 General Greene.          By Captain Francis V. Greene, U. S. A.
 General J. E. Johnston.  By Robert M. Hughes, of Virginia.
 General Thomas.          By Henry Coppee, LL. D.
 General Scott.           By General Marcus J. Wright.
 General Washington.      By General Bradley T. Johnson.
 General Lee.             By General Fitzhugh Lee.
 General Hancock.         By General Francis J. Walker.
 General Sheridan.        By General Henry E. Davies.
 General Grant.           By General James Grant Wilson.



_IN PREPARATION._

 General Sherman.         By General Manning F. Force.
 Admiral Porter.          By James R. Soley, late Assist. Sec. of Navy.
 General McClellan.       By General Peter S. Michie.
 Commodore Paul Jones.    By Admiral Richard W. Meade.

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.

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  [Illustration: D. G. Farragut]

  D. Appleton & Co.

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GREAT COMMANDERS




ADMIRAL FARRAGUT

BY CAPTAIN A. T. MAHAN, U. S. NAVY

  PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL WAR COLLEGE
  AUTHOR OF THE GULF AND INLAND WATERS, AND OF
  THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY, 1660-1783


_WITH PORTRAIT AND MAPS_


  NEW YORK
  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
  1897

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  Copyright, 1892,
  By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
  _All rights reserved._

  Electrotyped and Printed
  at the Appleton Press, U.S.A.

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PREFACE.


In preparing this brief sketch of the most celebrated of our naval
heroes, the author has been aided by the very full and valuable
biography published in 1878 by his son, Mr. Loyall Farragut, who has
also kindly supplied for this work many additional details of interest
from the Admiral's journals and correspondence, and from other
memoranda. For the public events connected with Farragut's career,
either directly or indirectly, recourse has been had to the official
papers, as well as to the general biographical and historical literature
bearing upon the war, which each succeeding year brings forth in books
or magazines. The author has also to express his thanks to Rear-Admiral
Thornton A. Jenkins, formerly chief-of-staff to Admiral Farragut; to
Captain John Crittenden Watson, formerly his flag-lieutenant; and to his
friend General James Grant Wilson, for interesting anecdotes and
reminiscences.

  A. T. M.


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CONTENTS.


CHAPTER                                                            PAGE

 I.--Family and Early Life, 1801-1811                                 1

 II.--Cruise of the Essex, 1811-1814                                 10

 III.--Midshipman to Lieutenant, 1814-1825                           51

 IV.--Lieutenant, 1825-1841                                          69

 V.--Commander and Captain, 1841-1860                                89

 VI.--The Question of Allegiance, 1860-1861                         106

 VII.--The New Orleans Expedition, 1862                             115

 VIII.--The First Advance on Vicksburg, 1862                        177

 IX.--The Blockade, and the Passage of Port Hudson, 1862-1863       196

 X.--Mobile Bay Fight, 1864                                         237

 XI.--Later Years and Death, 1864-1870                              294

 XII.--The Character of Admiral Farragut                            308




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
                                                                 FACING
                                                                   PAGE

 Portrait of Admiral Farragut                            _Frontispiece_

 General Map of the scene of Farragut's operations                  115

 Passage of Mississippi Forts                                       127

 Passage of Vicksburg Batteries                                     187

 Passage of Port Hudson                                             213

 Battle of Mobile Bay                                               247


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ADMIRAL FARRAGUT.




CHAPTER I.

FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE.

1801-1811.


The father of Admiral Farragut, George Farragut, was of unmixed Spanish
descent, having been born on the 29th of September, 1755, in the island
of Minorca, one of the Balearic group, where the family had been
prominent for centuries. One of his ancestors, Don Pedro Ferragut,
served with great distinction under James I, King of Aragon, in the wars
against the Moors, which resulted in their expulsion from Majorca in
1229, and from the kingdom of Valencia, in the Spanish Peninsula, in
1238. As Minorca in 1755 was a possession of the British Crown, to which
it had been ceded in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht, George Farragut was
born under the British flag; but in the following year a French
expedition, fitted out in Toulon, succeeding in wresting from the hands
of