Twenty years after the Civil War, David Dixon Porter, step-brother of David Farragut, and himself one of the major Union naval heroes, published his The Naval History of the Civil War. While there is much in it that is clearly pro-Navy propaganda and aimed at glorifying the officers of the fleet, it also tells us much about how a professional sea officer viewed the events of the War. There are a couple of things in his chapter on the Battle of Mobile Bay that I think deserve mention in the context of the previous post.
He makes much of Farragut's aggressiveness and personal bravery, noting that he "had already earned the sobriquet of 'The Old Salamander.'" (p. 567) Presumably salamander is here intended in the older sense of a fiery spirit, not of an amphibian with a long tail. By the way, he gives the famous quote as "'D--n the torpedoes,' he replied, 'follow me!'" (p. 573) Note too, as I failed to last night, that this followed directly on the sudden sinking of the ironclad monitor Tecumseh from a torpedo.
Clearly Farragut was aggressive to a fault, but he had hesitated to attack without ironclads. He had been outside Mobile Bay since January, and had repeatedly requested at least one ironclad. Porter writes: "At that time Farragut had not an ironclad, and, being convinced that it would be madness to attack these forts without such aid, made his wants known to the Navy Department, and the vessels were eventually supplied." (p. 567)
This point is made later in the chapter, and it is reiterated that he thought it foolish to force the forts and face at least one Confederate ironclad without at least a single monitor. As it was, he eventually got four. But note, even as aggressive an officer as this felt he needed a technological force multiplier in the shape of ironclad monitors. They did not prove vital in the battle that followed, but they gave Farragut and his men a psychological edge they needed.
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