expressing a decided opinion that the castle of San Juan de Ulloa could
be taken either by artillery attack or by escalade; offering to
undertake the task with the Pennsylvania and two sloops-of-war. If not
thought to have rank enough for such a command, he was willing to go
back to the position of executive officer of the Pennsylvania, in order,
in that capacity, to organize the crew for the attack. The opinion thus
expressed ran counter to the routine prejudices of the day, and, coming
from an officer who had as yet had no opportunity to establish his
particular claim to be heard, rather hurt than improved his chances for
employment. It was not till February, 1847, nearly a year after the war
began, and then with "much difficulty," that he obtained command of the
sloop-of-war Saratoga; but when he reached Vera Cruz in her, the castle
had already passed into the hands of the United States, having
surrendered to the forces under General Scott on the 26th of March. That
this capture should have been made by the army rather than by the navy
was a severe disappointment to Farragut, who had so long cherished the
hope that its fall should have been the brilliant achievement of his own
service. In his mortification he used an expression which, in the light
of his own subsequent career, seems a twofold prophecy. "The navy would
stand on a different footing to-day if our ships had made the attack. It
was all we could do, and should have been done at all hazards.
Commodore Conner thought differently, however, and the old officers at
home backed his opinion; but they all paid the penalty--_not one of them
will wear an admiral's flag_, which they might have done if that castle
had been taken by the navy, which must have been the result of an
attack." It was to such enterprise at the hands of the men of his own
time, among whom he was foremost, that the navy at a later day did
obtain the admiral's flag which it had so long in vain desired.

The frustration of this high ambition was not the only misfortune to
Farragut arising out of the Mexican war. He contracted the yellow fever
on the station, nearly losing his life; and subsequently became involved
in a controversy with the commodore of the squadron, who he believed
had, in the assignment of duty, treated him and his ship with unfair
discrimination, due to personal ill-will toward himself. The
correspondence had no results; but such quarrels are rarely other than
hurtful to the ju