CHAPTER XXIII
COMMODORE FARRAGUT WINS RENOWN
The Hero of Mobile Bay Lashes Himself to the Mast
AN old friend of ours is David G. Farragut. We met him, you may remember, years ago, on the old Essex, under Captain Porter, when he was a boy of only about ten years of age. Young as he was, he did good work on that fine ship during her cruise in the Pacific and her last great fight.
When the Civil War began Farragut had got to be quite an old boy. He was sixty years of age and a captain in the navy. He had been born in the South and now lived in Virginia, and the Confederates very much wanted him to fight on their side.
"Not after fighting fifty years for the old flag," he said. "And mind what I tell you; you fellows will catch much more than you want before you get through with this business."
And so Farragut reported for duty under the old flag.
Very soon the ships of the government were busy all along the coast, blockading ports and chasing blockade runners, and fighting wherever they saw a chance.
One such chance, a big one, came away down South. For there was the large City of New Orleans, which the British had tried to take nearly fifty years before; and there was the Mississippi River that led straight to it. But strong forts had been built along that river and armed boats were on its waters, and the Yankees of the North might find it as hard to get there as the British did.
Now I have to speak of another brave man and good seaman, David D. Porter. He was a son of the captain of the old Essex, and a life-long friend of David G. Farragut.