Besides his labors and the official anxieties due to his individual
command, he again, as in 1862, felt deeply the misfortunes with which
the general campaign of 1864 opened, and especially in the Southwest.
There was continually present to the minds of the leaders of the United
States forces during the war the apprehension that the constancy of the
people might fail; that doubtful issues might lead to a depression that
would cause the abandonment of the contest, in which success was
nevertheless assured to perseverance and vigor. Grant's memoirs bear
continual testimony to the statesmanlike regard he had, in planning his
greater military operations, to this important factor in the war, the
vacillation under uncertainty of that popular support upon which success
depended. The temperament of Farragut reflected readily the ups and
downs of the struggle, and was saddened by the weaknesses and
inconsistencies of his own side, which he keenly appreciated. "I am
_depressed_," he writes, "by the bad news from every direction. The
enemy seem to be bending their whole soul and body to the war and
whipping us in every direction. What a disgrace that, with their slender
means, they should, after three years, contend with us from one end of
the country to the other!... _I get right sick_, every now and then, at
the bad news." "The victory of the Kearsarge over the Alabama," on a
more auspicious occasion, "raised me up. I would sooner have fought that
fight than any ever fought on the ocean"; and his exultation was the
greater that the first lieutenant of the Kearsarge had been with him in
the same capacity when the Hartford passed the Mississippi forts.

But, while thus sensitive to the vicissitudes of his country's fortunes,
he did not readily entertain the thought of being himself defeated. "As
to being prepared for defeat," he wrote before New Orleans, "I certainly
am not. Any man who is prepared for defeat would be half defeated before
he commenced. I hope for success; shall do all in my power to secure it,
and trust to God for the rest." And again: "The officers say I don't
believe anything. I certainly believe very little that comes in the
shape of reports. They keep everybody stirred up. I mean to be whipped
or to whip my enemy, and not to be scared to death." "I hope for the
best results," he wrote a week before forcing the passage into Mobile
Bay, "as I am always hopeful; put my shoulder to the wheel with my best
judgme