He was a cabin boy at eight, a midshipman at nine and temporary captain of a captured ship at twelve.  He served his country for nearly sixty years and would  retire as the first Admiral of the US Navy.  He would have schools, parks, ships and communities named after him.  None of this was of note, however, in the early dawn light of a southern August morning as he commanded a fleet of 14 wooden ships, 4 monitors and forces of the US Army in what would become the biggest naval battle of the war.  He commanded the fleet from the quarterdeck of the US Hartford as she sailed gentle seas in the mouth of the bay.  As he gazed to the northeast he could see the impressive batteries of Ft. Morgan guarding the main channel and to the northwest the channel was both mined(the mines were called torpedoes then) and guarded by the smaller guns of Ft Gaines.   Directly to the north, he faced the enemy fleet consisting of three gunboats and an ironclad.  He had earlier taken the precaution of lashing his ships together in pairs with a larger sloop lashed to a smaller vessel.  In this way the larger sloop could bear the brunt of fire from the eastern shore batteries and if too severly damaged, could be quickly hauled to safety by the smaller vessel.  The battle plan called for landing troops to assault Ft Gaines then sailing as far west in the channel as possible to avoid Ft Morgan's batteries but not so far west as to put them in danger from the torpedoes or Ft Gaines'  guns.  All this while sailing fast enough forward to overwhelm the guns from the enemy ships to the north, inside the bay.  He had celebrated his 63rd birthday the previous month and had served almost 56 years in the navy and could easily have been asking himself, "What am I doing here?" but would have immediately answered himself with,"Because the President asked me".  He served because he loved his country and the navy and would consider nothing else.

So in the dawn light of Aug 5, 1864, he ordered the ironclad, USS Tecumseh, forward while cautioning all his forces to avoid the torpedoes blocking the channel.  His fleet came under immediate and devestating fire from shore batteries and the air was filled with shot and the smoke of battle.  In the confusion, Tecumseh lost her way, struck a torpedo and sank immediately with all 150 hands.  While this was occurring, he had ordered his men to lash him in the upper rigging of his flagship that he might better observe the battle above the smoke of the guns.  He had never been a believer in the invincibility of the ironclads and was therefore calmer than the captain of the USS Brooklyn who was behind the Tecumseh and began to immediately back his ship down.  At this point, knowing that to retreat was to lose, he was credited with the words that put him in the history books.  Admiral David G. Farragut is said to have commanded his fleet to "Damn the Torpedoes!  Full speed ahead!".  A 63 year old man, lashed to the rigging, witnessing the sinking of one ship, the obvious fear of the captain of another, firmly commands his ship forward through the minefield and to swift victory over the Confederate fleet.  He secured the last significant port open to blockade runners on the Gulf Coast having just recently secured the port of New Orleans.  Other than some small activity at Galveston, Texas, the Gulf Coast no longer served as a Confederate avenue for supplies.  Although Mobile, Alabama remained in Confederate control, Forts Morgan and Gaines were taken within three weeks and the Union forces controlled Mobile's access to the sea.

Whenever any of us thinks we have given too much to a cause, we should pause and give heed to the sacrifices David Farragut gave for his country.  All this from a man born and raised in Tennessee and who could have easily justified enlisting in the cause of the Confederacy. 

Today, you can still visit the forts as preserved by Alabama State Parks and you can stand at the Ft Morgan point, gaze across to the site of Ft Gaines on Dauphin Island and marvel at how any ship could have made it through that narrow channel.  Venture out and experience the stories that built America.