The life of David Glasgow Farragut, first admiral of the United States navy

Front matter

OF

ABM I RAL D. G . Far RAGUT vetai o7 . )

THE LIFE

Chapter I. His Ancestoes

On the blank leaf of a Bible in the possession of the family of Admii'al Farragut appears the following record, written in a bold and legible hand :

" My Son : Your father^ George Farragut^ was horn in the Island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean, in 1755, the 29th of September, in Ciudadella, and came away from that Island the '2d day of April, 1772 — came to America in Ma/rch, 1776. Your mother, Elizabeth Shine, was horn in North Carolina, Dohhs Co., near Kinnston on the Neuse Ri/ver, in 1765, on the 7th of June. Her father, John Shine — mother, Ellenor Mclven.''^

This is corroborated by an entry in the books of the ecclesiastical court of Ciudadella, which, being translated, reads as follows :

"iVb. 155. George Farragut, son of Anthony Farragut OMd Juana Mesquida, was baptized on the 30th of September, 1755. The godfather, Don Joseph de Vigo ^ godmother, the

2 THE LIFE OF DAVID GLASGOW FAEKAGUT.

noble lady Dona Juana Martorell. The name of the child, George Anthony Magin. He was horn on the Wth of the aforesaid month and yearP

George Farragut was descended from the renowned Don Pedro Ferragut, who served under James I., King of Aragon, styled in history El Conquistador, in the campaigns which resulted in the expulsion of the Moors from Majorca in 1229, and from Valencia in 1238. In Majorca Don Pedro was Sergeant before the King — an office of high honor and importance, held only by those of noble blood. James bestowed estates upon the knights who accompanied him in these enterprises, and directed the troubadom* Mossen Jaime Febrer to celebrate them in verse. The following is the stanza devoted to Pedro Ferragut :

De expert capita per lo dilitgent;

The late Henry Howard Brownell, on reading these lines, extemporized the following translation, which is sufficiently literal :

A charger's shoe is borne on bis shield, Of purest gold, on a blood-red field, Set thereon with a nail of the same : Thus we know him, device and name.

From Jaca, in Aragon, he came.

At Mallorca and Valencia both, "Well he quitted his knightly troth, Serving as Sergeant before his liege.

Through the conquest, in field and siege:

HIS ANCESTORS. 3

Strong in battle, by plain or hold,

Great his fame as a warrior bold,

And a prudent captain to shun surprise ;

For years and victories made him wise.

At every manner of arms expert,

He did on the foe great spoil and hurt.

Those who beKeve in the transmission of ancestral traits will find a signal illustration of the theory in the character of Admiral Farragut. The qualities attributed by the poet to Don Pedro were those for which his illustrious descendant was preeminently distinguished. According to the testimony of his contemporaries in the service, he was one of the best informed and most painstaking officers in his profession, irreproachable in his morals, earnest and energetic, admitting no such word as fail in the vocabulary of duty.

The records of the General Council of the Kingdom of Majorca show that the following members of the family of Ferragut were councilors :

Bernardo Ferragut, of Puebla, in 1461 and 1491.

Valentin Ferragut, of Puebla, in 1492.

Julian Ferragut, of Sansellas, in 1500.

Bernardo Ferragut, in 1505 and 1509.

Jorge Ferragut, of Sansellas, in 1506.

Marcos Ferragut, of Sinen, 1512.

Bartolome Ferragut, in 1513.

Bernardo Ferragut, in 1516.

Onofre Ferragut, in 1534.

Pedro Ferragut, in 1536, 1540, and 1549.

Gabriel Ferragut, in 1540.

Lorenzo Ferragut, in 1542.

Miguel Ferragut, of Sansellas, in 1563.

Three of the family were magistrates of the City of Palma and Kingdom of Majorca :

Bernardo Ferragut, in 1516.

Juan Ferragut, in 1583.

Gabriel Ferragut, in 1585, 1590, and 1605.

The prebendary Agustin Ferragut, who died ip 1576, was a noted tlicologian and benefactor of tlio House of Repentants at Pahna.

Pablo Ferragut was topographer and historian of Majorca.

Captain Antonio Ferragut, of Cdnaves, fought heroically in the wars of Philip TV., in the seventeenth century, died unmarried, and bequeathed all his property to a college.

Gonzalo Ferragut, a native of Pollenza, was a Dominican priest, was celebrated for his learning, and became Bishop of Urgel in 1S27 and of Yoiza in 1831. lie died in 1843.

The FeiTagut family possessed a large estate and were living in Ciudadclla in 1558, when the Turks carried off 4,000 of the inhabitants as slaves. Among these was Antonio Ferragut, with his wife and six children. In February, 1564, the father and mother and one son, Constantino, having been ransomed for 34 gold ducats and 53 aspros (about $90), sailed from Constantinople for Minorca. Miguel Ferragut, a priest, was conspicuous for his exertions in procuring the exchange and release of the captives. One of them, Marco Antonio Bonet, writing to a Dr. Mai-ti, of Naples, said : " True it is that Miguel Ferragut, presbyter, solicits well that with which you have commissioned him — so well that, as I am informed, no one of our country could do more in such an undertaking ; and, if they had given him higher powers, many of us would have acquired our liberty." Miguel himself said in a letter : " I am tired of staying in this place (Constantinople), but if I leave it there will be no one to interest himself for our unfortunate countrymen."

Antonio Ferragut, grandfather of the Admiral, was born in Sinen, Majorca, and was a son of Jorge and of Ursula Guitaii;. He married Juana Mesquida, daughter of Juan and Juana Bagur. The name Ferragut is now extinct in Minorca. It seems to have been superseded by that of Mesquida.

George Farragut, father of the Admiral, was sent to school at Barcelona, but was seized with the spirit of adventure, and emigrated to America at an early age — but not with the 1,500 Greeks, Italians, and Minorcans who settled in Florida in 17C8. He arrived in 1776, promptly sided with the colonists, and served gallantly in their struggle for independence, as also in

HIS ANCESTORS. 5

the war of 1812. It is said that he saved the life of Colonel Wa.sliin^jn in the battle of Cowpens. The name firHt appears officially in tlie Journal of the JJoubo of Itepresentatives of the United States for 1797. Hon. William C, C. Claiborne, of Tennessee, presented " Tlie petition of George Farra^jt, prayinf^ that lie may be allowed the balance of pay due to him for services rendered the United States as Muster Master of the Militia of the district of Washin^on (East Tennessee), employed in actual service for the protection of tlic frontiers of the United States south of the Ohio, from the Ist of March, 1792, to the 20th of October, 1798."

L^ter, ]\Jr. Claiborne became Governor of Mississippi Territory (1801) and of Louisiana (1803). It was probably during this interval that George Farragut moved to Louisiana, where he soon after entered the naval service.

Until 1811 there was substantially no government on the Mississippi and Louisiana coast. The Spaniards claimed the seaboard, as far as Pearl liiver, as part of their j>rovince of "West Florida. But the American w;ttlers in the district revolted, assaulted and took the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, adopted a ikg, and organized a government and a military force.

In taking possession of the disputed territory, by orders from "Washington, Governor Claiborne organized it into counties. Tlie present seaboard of Mississippi constituted the counties of Biloxi and Pascagoula.

A dispatch to the Governor, which he forwarded to "Washington, runs as follows :

" On the 2d of December, 1810, I arrived in the Bay of Pascagoula. On going on shore next day, a number of men gathered around and said Majors Ilargraves and Dupree wished to see me. I said I would call the following morning. Accordingly, on the 4th I found the house of the late John B. Nicolet. On my arrival they ran up the flag of the Convention. Next day pressed John B. Boudro's schooner and two others owned by Anthony Krebs and Augustine, a mulatto. These they brought before Mr. Nicolet's house, and loaded with negroes, dry goods, liquors, provisions, furniture, etc., the property of deceased. Next day they proceeded up the Pascagoula River. Peter Nicola was appointed commandant of Pascagoula, with orders to comjDel the inhabitants to swear allegiance to the new government. Keturning westward, I found Nicola at Pass Christian, ordering the inhabitants to Pascagoula to take the oath. There were no Spanish authorities on the coast. They had retired to Mobile.

" Geokge Faeeagut."

On January 25, 1811, Governor Claiborne dispatched a Dr. Flood, in the felucca Alligator, Sailing Master George Farragut, to those counties, to select a commission of the most intelligent men as magistrates, etc. In his report. Dr. Flood says that, " at the special request of the inhabitants of Pascagoula, by whom he is greatly beloved, I prevailed on Sailing Master George Farragut to accept the commission of magistrate."

Whether he severed his connection with the service at this time, I have no record ; but as Lieutenant (afterward Major- General) Gaines was appointed to the same oflSce, and retained his commission in the service, it is to be presumed that it was merely a temporary post of honor, no emoluments being attached to the office.

He was a friend and companion of General Jackson, and served with him in the Indian campaigns. He removed to Pascagoula in 1809, and died at Point Plaquet, West Pascagoula, June 4, 1817, aged sixty-three. A son, George Antoine, aged ten, was drowned in July, 1815, having fallen overboard from a boat in which he was being towed behind a schooner. This circumstance weighed heavily on the fathei-'s mind to the day of his death.

On his mother's side, Admiral Farragut came of the good old Scotch family of Mclven. In his journal, begun while he was a midshipman, he speaks thus of his parents : " I know that my father was an officer in the Kevolutionary struggle for our independence ; but whether on land or water, I can not say. In fact, his occupations were as various as could be expected of a

HIS ANCESTOES. 7

restless disposition and a mind filled with enterprise, courage, and a desire for novelty. At one time we hear of him as an officer of the N^avy, and then in the somewhat novel character, for a sailor, of a major of cavahy, in the State of Tennessee. He accompanied two gentlemen, McKay and Ogden, on an expedition to sm*vey and settle a part of that State, where they lived for some time in a log hut. After the country became more thickly inhabited, he took unto himself a wife. Miss Elizabeth Shine, of ISTorth Carolina, and settled in Tennessee as a farmer."

CHAPTEE II.

HIS BOYHOOD.

David Glasgow Faekagut, tlie first Admiral of the United States Navy, was born at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, East Tennessee, on the 5th of July, 1801. In his journal, alluding to the family's early residence in Tennessee, he says :

" In those days, on the border, we were continually annoyed by the Indians, which rendered the organization of the militia a pubHc necessity. My father was appointed a major of cavalry, and served for some time in that capacity ; the condition of the country requiring its inhabitants to be constantly on the outlook. I remember that on one occasion, during my father's absence, a party of Indians came to our house, which was somewhat isolated, when my mother, who was a brave and energetic woman, barred the door in the most effectual manner, and sent all of us trembling little ones up into the loft of the barn, while she guarded the entrance with an axe. The savages attempted to parley with her, but she kept them at bay, until finally they departed, for some reason which is unknown, their intentions having been evidently hostile. My father arrived shortly after with his command, and immediately pursued the Indians, whom, I believe, he succeeded in overtaking and punishing ; at any rate, they were never seen again in that part of the country."

In 18 — Major Farragut received an appointment as sailing master in the Navy, and was ordered to the command of a gunboat at New Orleans, to which place he shortly afterward moved his family. It was not long after he fixed his residence in that city before his faithful and beloved wife fell a victim to yellow fever (1808). Her funeral, according to a letter of the late

HIS BOYHOOD. 9

Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, U. S. N., who was a pallbearer, occurred at the same time with that of Sailing Master David Porter, father of the celebrated Commodore David Porter, of Essex fame. Mrs. Parragut left three sons and two daughters, the younger of the latter being an infant at the breast. In 1809 Sailing Master Parragut was relieved from command of the schooner, and transferred to the naval station at !New Orleans. In the same year he purchased a farm of nine hundred acres on Pascagoula Piver. In his journal Parragut says :

" I accompanied a young man whom my father sent to clear the place. This expedition was my first experience on salt water, and I fervently hoped, at that time, it would be my last. He took us in a small boat across Lake Pontchartrain, when it was blowing almost a gale ; but that fact never caused my father any uneasiness, for he had great confidence in his pirogue, considering it much safer than the gunboats. In fact, we were hailed when passing them, and invited to ' come on board until the blow was over ' ; but he replied that he ' could ride it out better than they could.' "When any one suggested to him the risk to which he subjected his children in thus crossing the Lake, he generally replied that ' now was the time to conquer their fears.'

"The most daring enterprise which my father ever performed by water was in going from Kew Orleans to Havana in a pirogue, a species of canoe made of two pieces of wood instead of one. The old gentleman frequently adverted to this voyage in after life, "When speaking of the good qualities of his little yawl, a small boat in which he navigated the Lake, which some of his friends thought a dangerous experiment, he would exclaim, ' Danger indeed ! If you had said there was danger in going to Havana in a pirogue, there would have been some sense in it ; but this thing is as safe as any craft at the levee.' This fondness for the sea was very strong with him, but his health was not sufficiently good, at that period of his life, to endure the hardships of actual service, or to indulge in the pleasures of an extended cruise; so he contented himself with making frequent trips across the Lake, with his children, in the yawl ; a practice he kept up until the day of his death.

" When the weather was bad we usually slept on the beach of one of the numerous islands in the Lake, or else on the shore of the main land, wrapped in the boat sail, and, if the weather was cold, we generally half buried ourselves in the dry sand."

Reference has already been made to Sailing Master David Porter. This gentleman was hos]3itably entertained, during his last illness, by the parents of Admiral Farragut. To this circumstance the latter attributed his apj)ointment to the Kavy. The incident no doubt had an important bearing on his career ; but it is highly probable that, even if he had never met his " kind friend and guardian," as he calls Commodore Porter, to whom he acknowledged through life his great obligations, and with whom to the last he maintained the closest relations of friendship, his early training, his fondness for sea life, and the inclinations of his father, who had already procured the appointment of his eldest son William in the N"avy, would still have given David Glasgow to the same service. The following is his own account of the matter :

" It so happened that the father of Commodore Porter was serving on the Kew Orleans l^aval Station with my father. He was taken sick, and my father, hearing of it, had him brought to our house, where, after a severe illness, during which he was nursed by my mother, he died. This, as well as I can remember, occurred in 1809. I mention this kind act on the part of my parents because it is to this circumstance that I am indebted for my present rank in the Navy of the United States. JS'ot long after his father's death, Commander David Porter took command of the Naval Station at New Orleans, and having heard that his father died at our house, and had received some attention from my parents, he determined to visit us and adopt such one of the children as desired to go with him. He accordingly came to see us, and after a while the question of adoption was put to us all, when I, being inspired by his

HIS BOYHOOD. H

imiform and that of my brother William, who had received an appointment in the Navy some time before, said promptly that I would go. This was after my mother's death. I returned with Commander Porter to New Orleans, where I met Mrs. Porter for the first time. Thus commenced my acquaintance with the celebrated Commodore David Porter, late of the United States Navy, and I am happy to have it in my power to say, with feelings of the warmest gratitude, that he ever was to me all that he promised, my ' friend and guardian.'

" I continued to reside with Commander Porter, occasionally accompanying him on excursions and boat expeditions, and sometimes going with my father across the Lake to his plantation ; so that I soon became fond of this adventurous sort of life.

" Porter was at length relieved, and returned to Washington in the bomb-ketch Yesuvius, I accompanying him. It was then that I took leave of my kind parent for ever. We touched at Havana, where we learned that the brig Yixen, Captain Tripp, had been fired into by a British vessel of war. I mention this merely because I believe it was the first thing that caused bad feeling in me toward the English nation. I was too young to know anything about the Revolution ; but I looked upon this as an insult to be paid in kind, and was anxious to discharge the debt with interest."

Commander Porter remained at the capital, with his family, for several months, during which young Farragut was placed at school. On the removal of the Porter family to their residence at Chester, Pennsylvania, he accompanied them and was again placed in school, where he remained until Commander Porter was ordered to take charge of the frigate Essex. During his stay at Washington the youth had been introduced to the Hon. Paul Hamilton, then Secretary of the Navy, who, after questioning him in regard to the service, promised him a midshipman's warrant as soon as he became ten years of age. This promise was generously redeemed, Farragut's appointment in the Navy bearing date December 17, 1810, when he was a little

more than nine years and five months old. 2

CHAPTER III. ' HIS riKST CRUISE

PoRTEE, who, thougli ordered to do tlie duty of a captain, was not promoted to that rank till July 12, 1812, took command of the Essex in August, 1811, and young Farragut accompanied him, beginning at that tender age the arduous duties of the naval service, in times and under circumstances well calculated to test the endurance of the sturdiest man. The frigate was then lying at I*^orfolk, Virginia, and the trip from Chester by stage and packet is described in the journal as a long and tedious one, with only the upsetting of a stage to vary its monotony. His first impressions of the service seem to have been favorable. He says :

" On reaching the Essex, I was exceedingly pleased with the ship and her officers. John Downes was the First Lieutenant, James P. Wilmer Second, James Wilson Third, William Finch Fourth, John M. Gamble Marine Officer, Robert Miller Surgeon, Richard K. Hoffman and Alex. M. Montgomery Assistant Surgeons, David P. Adams Chaplain, John R. Shaw Purser. The ship was soon refitted and ready for sea, when we received orders to join the coast squadron under Commodore Rodgers, consisting of the frigates President, States, Congress, and Essex, with the brig Argus. ^Nothing occurred of note until we went into port to winter. We cruised on the coast, and exercised the crews until they were brought to as great a state of perfection and discipline as ever existed, probably, in the Navy. Our ship, the Essex, was the ' smartest ' in the squadron, and Commodore Rodgers complimented our captain highly. So efficient had our crew become that they were divided into three watches, and that arrangement remained in force until the day of the ship's capture.

HIS FIKST CRUISE. 13

"We went to Kewport, Rhode Island, on Christmas eve, 1811, and anchored off the Bluffs, not being able to bring up in the harbor. About four o'clock in the morning it commenced to blow very hard from the northeast, with sleet and snow, and we let go another anchor, and at half past six let go a third and a fourth ; but she dragged the whole of them and went ashore just off the Bluffs. She heeled over very much, and in a short time the main and mizzen top-gallant masts were blown away, everything being so clogged with ice as to render it impossible to house the masts. It was understood that we lay on a bank, and, if the ship should beat over, nothing could save us from being dashed against the cliffs, which seemed a perfect mass of ice. The only hope left of saving the lives of the crew was to cut away the masts as soon as the ship was sufficiently near the bank, and men were accordingly stationed at the galley with axes, ready to execute the order — for no one could keep the deck. The Captain and First Lieutenant were on the lookout by turns, a few minutes only at a time, the cold being so intense that one of the men, an Indian or mulatto, was found in his hammock frozen. Fortunately, the gale abated at this critical period, without doing us any further injury; but there was great destruction on the coast from its fearful effects. The ISTautilus came in soon afterward, with the loss of her guns, and otherwise severely crippled.

" During the remainder of the winter the midshipmen of the squadron were sent to school to a Mr. Adams, and early in the spring the squadron went to New York, where some of the ships underwent repairs."

On the 18th of June, 1812, the Congress of the United States declared war against Great Britain. Our little Navy was scarcely in a condition for combined action. A small squadron had been brought together in New York, consisting of the President, 44, Commodore Rodger's ; the Essex, 32, Captain Porter ; and the Hornet, 18, Captain Lawrence. The other vessels were scattered, some of them undergoing repairs. Commodore Rodgers dropped down the bay with the President and Hornet, and was joined on the 21st of June by tlie United States, 44, Captain Decatur; Congress, 38, Captain Smith; and Argus, 16, Lieutenant Commander Sinclair. The Essex remained a few days in port, overhauling her rigging and restowing her hold. She then got to sea and made several prizes, destroying most of them and receiving the prisoners on board.

It is not the purpose of the present work to follow in detail the events of the war which shed so much glory upon our infant Navy, further than the subject of this memoir is connected therewith. It was his fortune to belong to a frigate which took an active and singularly adventurous part in the contest. The eventful cruise of the Essex and her final capture by a superior British force, after one of the hardest fought and most sanguinary battles that ever occurred on the ocean, form a remarkable episode in naval warfare.

Farragut was but ten years and one month old when he joined his ship, and he bore a gallant part in all her adventures. In his journal, which was begun but a few years later, he gives the following graphic account of the cruise :

" The war with Great Britain was declared just after we began overhauling. The declaration was read to the crew on three successive days, and the Captain put the question to them, whether any one wished his discharge on the plea of being a British subject. No one answered until the third day, when, in the act of taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, one man refused, saying that he was an Englishman. He was sail-maker's mate, and had been promised the position of sailmaker. Unfortunately for him, there was a sailor on board who offered to make oath that the fellow was an American, and that he had known him from his youth ; that, in fact, they were from the same town, Barnstable, I think. The crew were enraged to such a degree that violence would have been done if the Captain had not interfered. He determined, however, to gratify them to a certain extent, and allowed the man to be tarred and feathered and put on shore at New York as a coward. This was considered a great outrage on the laws, and Captain

HIS FIRST CRUISE. 15

Porter liad some difficulty in getting clear of the civil authorities. The man, however, who really was an American, and only wanted a frolic on shore, which he might have had by asking, as great liberty was allowed to the men, afterward served all through the war on the Lakes, where he died about its termination.

" The crew worked with great spirit and assiduity, and the ship was ready for sea in about three weeks, when we sailed on a cruise off the coast, during which we captured the Alert and several other prizes. We saw the British ship Antelope, 50 guns, on the banks of Newfoundland, and ran near enough to see her upper deck ports. We then hove to, but she passed without noticing us. We also ran into a conyoy of transports in the night, passed under the stern of the Minerva frigate, and captured a brig with a hundred and fifty troops and some general officers on board. At daylight we showed our colors, and perceived that there were several vessels of war with the convoy, and that all of the transports were armed and had some hundreds of troops on board.

" The captured British officers were very anxious for us to have a fight with the Minerva, as they considered her a good match for the Essex, and Captain Porter replied that he would gratify them with pleasure if his Majesty's commander was of their taste. So we stood toward the convoy, and when within gunshot hove to and waited for the Minerva ; but she tacked, and stood in among the convoy, to the utter amazement of our prisoners, who denounced the commander as a base coward and expressed their determination to report him to the Admiralty. Our crew became so wrought up that they sent a deputation aft to the Captain, requesting him to attack the whole convoy. He replied that it would be madness to do so. He then paroled the officers and troops, took their arms from them, and let them go.

" We afterward fell in with the Alert sloop of war, 20 guns, at which time the Essex was sailing under reefed topsails, the Alert being to windward. As soon as we discovered her in the morning, we put out drags astern, and led the enemy to believe we were desirous of making our escape, by sending men aloft, shaking out the reefs, mast-heading the yards, and making sail. The Alert was deceived in our character, as was the intention, and bore down upon us. We w^ent to quarters and cleared for action, with the exception of taking out the tompions — our ports remaining closed.

" Suddenly the Alert fired a gun, and we hove to, when she passed under our stern. When she was on the lee quarter, we changed the English flag for the American, upon which the enemy gave three cheers and poured in a broadside of grape and canister. Fortunately, she was too far abaft the beam for the shot to enter our ports, so that they struck harmlessly in the bulwarks. We then put up our helm, and gave her a broadside as soon as the guns would bear, tompions and all ! She, of course, had now discovered her mistake, and attempted to run, but too late, for she was in the lion's reach. In eight minutes we were alongside, when she fired a musket and struck her colors. They hailed, and said the ship was leaking very badly. After we had stopped the leak as well as we could, the oflacers were transferred to our vessel, and we took the Alert in tow and kept her with us for several days. Finding, however, that our ship was too crowded for safety and comfort, the Captain determined to make a cartel of his prize, and so, disarming her and paroling the officers and crew, he sent them in the Alert to St. John's, N. F., in charge of Mr. Knight.