be of use to the flag of my adoption," and threw himself overboard.

The necessity of choosing between the North and the South brought
Farragut many sleepless nights and forced him between the fires of
censure from the South and doubt of his fealty from the North, as it was
recognized that the Southern man, as a rule, felt that his first
allegiance was due to his State.

When he was but a lad of seven years, Farragut lost his mother and was
adopted by his father's friend, that fighting old Commodore David
Porter, who was destined to raise both his adopted and his own son to
become admirals in the United States Navy.

For little Dave Farragut the sea had always a wonderful fascination, and
at the age of twelve he was made a midshipman on the _Essex_, a warship
of 1812. The _Essex_ one day captured a whaling vessel, and Captain
Porter placed David in charge to steer her across the Pacific. The
captain of the whaler, when clear of the _Essex_, thought to regain his
vessel from the boy, by countermanding his orders. He threatened to
shoot any sailor who dared to disobey him. Right here, the mettle that
was to make Farragut the head of the American navy and the idol of the
American people manifested itself. He repeated his order at first given;
and when the mutinous captain appeared from below decks where he had
gone for his pistols, he was told by the youthful commander that he
would have to stay below or be thrown overboard. He chose the former.

To this same dauntless spirit, the Federal government owed the blockade
of the lower Mississippi and the closing of the ports of Mobile Bay,
that inflicted such injuries upon the Confederacy as to hasten the end
of the war. "With ports closed," says an authority, "the Southern armies
were reduced to a pitiful misery, the long endurance of which makes a
noble chapter in heroism."

The lower Mississippi was controlled by the Confederates. Possession of
the river and the capture of New Orleans could be accomplished only by
running the forts situated below the city some seventy miles. To run the
forts with wooden vessels and escape destruction from the armed vessels
of the Confederacy in the Mississippi was a hazardous undertaking.
Farragut believed he could do this. In December, 1861, he wrote to a
friend: "Keep your lips closed and burn my letters. Perfect silence is
the first injunction of the Secretary. I am to have a _flag_ in the
gulf, and the rest depends upon myself."