In the heart of the business, hotel, and restaurant district of Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House, a hulking bronze statue stands as the centerpiece of an attractive park square. The figure is a rugged- looking man in old-fashioned attire, holding a large telescope. A trained eye will recognize that he is wearing a Civil War naval officer’s working uniform and that the object in his grasp is a ship’s long glass. The bronze mariner has a look of stem determination as he appears to be scanning ahead to action on some watery horizon. At the base of the statue is the simple inscription, in block print, “FARRAGUT.”
On 1 June 1994, feature writer Joel Aschenbach lamented in The Washington Post (“A Statue That Is Taken for Granite”) the fact that people who pass by or through this square generally ignore the statue altogether. He touched on the facets of a life and career that established this man as a legitimate naval hero, and he told the sidelight story of the statue’s youthful female sculptor. But except for the few naval persons and Civil War buffs who happened through the square, he concluded, few people had the vaguest idea of who this “Farragut” was and what had earned him the right to be memorialized in this prominent location.
A Popular Hero
It wasn’t this way just more than a century ago, when the statue was dedicated in 1881. For Americans of that era, the name “Farragut” was sufficient to identify Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, United States Navy, one of the most celebrated Union military officers of the Civil War. His dramatic victory at Mobile Bay had thrust him into national prominence even beyond his death in 1870. President Abraham Lincoln had held Farragut in high esteem, declaring his assignment to command U.S. naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico to be one of his best military appointments of the war. Immediately after the war, Congress acknowledged the broad public admiration for Farragut by elevating him to four-star Admiral, a rank specially created for him.
The Farragut statue, which had been a work-in-progress for several years, was the first honoring a Civil War hero to be erected in the nation’s capital. The artist was celebrated sculptor Vinnie Ream-Hoxie, a gifted young woman who had conducted careful research of the admiral’s career, collaborating closely with his widow, Virginia Loyall Farragut. The finished work was a ten-foot figure with one foot on a block of rigging, flanked by four bronze mortars which, like the statue itself, are cast from the propeller of the USS Hartford, Farragut’s former flagship. The base was fashioned from 100-ton gray Maine granite blocks, which contain a copper box protecting an account of the admiral’s service to the nation and a history of the statue itself.
Appropriately, dedication day in 1881 was 25 April, the 19th anniversary of the capture of New Orleans by naval forces under the command of Farragut. It turned out to be one of the most colorful naval ceremonies ever held in Washington. A full-scale military parade formed at the U.S. Capitol grounds and proceeded up Pennsylvania Avenue past a reviewing stand at the White House, then on to Farragut Square. Participating units included U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen, a naval battalion pulling boat howitzers, naval ship and headquarters bands, a battalion of Marines, and the U.S. Marine Band.
Four batteries of artillery and the 2nd Artillery Band represented the Army. Many dignitaries were in attendance, as President James Garfield, in his first appearance since his inauguration, delivered the principal address. The Admiral’s widow and sculptor Ream-Hoxie shared honors on the dedication stand.
The Hero’s Story
Farragut is best known for one of the most famous battle cries in American military history: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Legend has it that Farragut uttered these words as he led his fleet through waters heavily sown with mines (then called torpedoes) to defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama, on 5 August 1864-
When a mine sank the USS Tecumseh, the lead ship in one of his attack columns, and another lead ship, the USS Brooklyn, faltered, Farragut compelled the following ships to keep going forward, lest the formation fall into disarray and become easy prey for the Confederate ships and shore batteries. Farragut personally directed a close engagement with the Confederate armored ram CSS Tennessee, while lashed to the rigging of his flagship, the USS Hartford, whence he could see above the smoke of the guns. After a fierce battle, the Union fleet prevailed, effectively closing the last major blockade-running port on the Gulf Coast.
Mobile Bay was not an isolated flash of brilliance for Farragut. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had placed the 60-year-old Farragut in command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at the beginning of 1862. His orders were clear; capture the South’s largest and most important port, New Orleans, Louisiana. On 25 April, Farragut accomplished his goal after a fierce battle in which he led his fleet past strong Confederate defenses near the mouth of the Mississippi River, dealing a severe blow to Southern morale and cutting a vital supply line from foreign sources and the American Southwest. As a result of this bold victory, Farragut was promoted to the rank of rear admiral.
During the remainder of 1862, Farragut’s ships seized control of the lower Mississippi, and he pursued a series of military objectives farther up the river. He was unsuccessful in an attempt to capture the fortress city of Vicksburg and alternately enjoyed gains and suffered setbacks, as riverine warfare was, at best, a difficult and complex matter. Enemy strength invested in fixed fortresses, which allowed for withering opposition to river passage. Confederate troop movements constantly threatened ambush and the severing of supply lines to the rear, and the vagaries of river current, shifting sand bars, and weather posed a continuing challenge to effective river navigation. In the spring of 1863, Farragut's flotilla supported the attack on Port Hudson, Louisiana, and closed the Red River to enemy navigation in March. As General Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign neared a climax, Farragut’s larger ships served in a supporting role for the powerful flotilla of smaller ironclads and rams under the command of Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. Vicksburg fell to Union forces on the 4th of July.
Bom in Tennessee in 1801, David was the son of Jorge Farragut, a Spanish-born Navy sailing master, and a U.S.- born mother of Irish descent. His father fought throughout the American Revolution, both at sea and ashore in the Army artillery, and sustained wounds in battle. A fact sometimes overlooked and a rightful source of pride within the Hispanic Community is Farragut’s Spanish heritage— one of our Navy’s greatest heroes and its first admiral.
At an early age, David’s father sent him to live with a family friend, Commodore David Porter, after his mother died of yellow fever. The young Farragut quickly became attracted to the naval tradition of the two families and received an appointment as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy at age nine. His sea service commenced when he sailed with Porter in the War of 1812.
In the years that followed, Farragut cruised the Mediterranean, South America, and the Caribbean, and in 1854 he established the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at the upper end of San Francisco Bay. As a Navy captain, Farragut commanded the USS Saratoga during the Mexican War.
When the Civil War broke out, the question was whether Farragut would continue to serve the Union or shift his loyalty to the Confederacy. Having been born and raised in the South and comfortably resided with his family for a number of years in Norfolk, Virginia, he was, by definition, a southerner. But at the start of hostilities, he hastily moved his family to New York, choosing to defend the nation his father had helped bring into existence, in the service that had so shaped his life, the U.S. Navy.
Farragut inspired his subordinates. George Dewey, the future hero of the Spanish-American War, once wrote that he often asked himself in a difficult situation, “What would Farragut do?” His name stands with those of John Paul Jones, John Barry, Dewey, and Chester Nimitz as one of America’s greatest naval heroes. And Farragut’s legacy is the fighting spirit he has passed down as his precious gift to all who serve in the U.S. Navy—always to dare.
In earlier years, numerous namesakes honored David Glasgow Farragut’s memory. Three Navy warships have borne his name. A junior naval academy with campuses in New Jersey (formerly) and Florida, veterans’ groups, schools, government buildings, streets, and parks also bear the name. Among the many statues of Farragut, the two most prominent are the one in Washington and one in New York City’s Madison Square Park.
Sadly, however, even as Farragut’s name has been carried on, the memory of who he was and what he did has faded, as writer Aschenbach affirmed in his aforementioned Washington Post article.
Partially in response to the Aschenbach story, several members of the National Capitol Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States were compelled to pass the word among their fellow members. Here was a loud, clear call to rally ’round Farragut and put this matter right, they thought. So they conceived a project that would somehow embellish the statue so the contemporary visitor would at least know a few key facts about the naval hero. It was an action directly in line with the Naval Order’s mission: “to preserve documents, portraits, and records of prominent figures, deeds and memories of our naval and maritime history.”
In a cooperative venture, the National Park Service and the Naval Order are installing an interpretive wayside marker at the statue site. Constructed with durable porcelain enamel and accompanied by color graphics and supporting text, the marker will present the passerby with quick and interesting information concerning Admiral Farragut. The Naval Order launched a fundraising drive to cover the cost of design and fabrication of the wayside, which would be under the auspices of the Park Service. The design centers around a large, full-color Mobile Bay battle scene of Farragut in the rigging of the Hartford.
To augment the wayside and expand on its brief message, the Park Service is preparing a site brochure with funding provided by the Naval Order. Dedication, with appropriate ceremony, is set for Wednesday, 1 October 1997. This date, which coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month, was chosen to recognize Admiral Farragut’s Spanish ancestry. In attendance will be members of Congress, serving admirals and government figures, representatives of the Hispanic community, veterans of the USS Farragut (DD-343), members of the Naval Order and National Park Service, and donors to the project. Farragut Square is at 17th and I Streets, Northwest. For more information on the Naval Order, write P.O. Box 19216, Alexandria, Virginia, 22320-0216 or call (703) 232-0929.