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Commodore David Porter:
David Porter, born 1 February 1780 at Boston, Massachussetts, served in the
Quasi War with France first as midshipman on board Constellation,
participating in the capture of L’Insurgente 9 February 1799; secondly, as
1st lieutenant of Experiment and later in command of Amphitrite.
During the Barbary Wars (1801-07) Porter was 1st lieutenant of Enterprise,
New York and Philadelphia and was taken prisoner when Philadelphia ran
aground in Tripoli harbor 31 October 1803. After his release 3 June 1805 he
remained in the Mediterranean as acting captain of Constitution and later
captain of Enterprise. He was in charge of the naval forces at New Orleans
1808-10. As commander of Essex in the War of 1812, Captain Porter achieved
fame by capturing the first British warship of the conflict, Alert, 13 August
1812 as well as several merchantmen. In 1813 he sailed Essex around Cape Horn
and cruised in the Pacific warring on British whalers.
On 28 March 1814 Porter was forced to surrender off Valpariso after an
unequal contest with the frigates HBMS Phoebe and Cherub and only when his
ship was too disabled to offer any resistance. From 1815 to 1822 he was a
member of the Board of Navy Commissioners but gave up this post to command
the expedition for suppressing piracy in the West Indies 1823-25. Commodore
Porter resigned his commission in 1826 and became the commander-in-chief of
the Mexican Navy 1826-29.
He died on 3 March 1843 while U.S. Minister of Turkey.
Admiral David Dixon Porter:
Vice Admiral David Dixon Porter was born on June 8, 1813, and was a native of
Pennsylvania. He was the youngest son of David Porter, who commanded the
Essex in the war of 1812-14 with Great Britain. Young Porter entered the
service as midshipman in February, 1829, and served in the Mediterranean
until 1835, when he was employed for several years in coast survey and river
explorations. At the close of 1845 he was placed on special duty at the
Washington observatory, resigning in 1846 to take part in the Mexican war. At
the outbreak of the late war he was promoted to the rank of commander, and in
1862 the mortar fleet for the bombardment of the forts below New Orleans was
placed under his orders.
Vice Admiral David Dixon Porter spent much of 1862-1863 along the Mississippi
River and in smaller Mississippi Rivers, including the Yazoo, the Coldwater,
the Tallahatchie, and the Yalobusha. He directed campaigns against a long
list of Confederate positions in the Mississippi Delta, from he Grand Gulf
batteries, to the Chickasaw Bluffs to Miliken's Bend and Port Hudson. After
the capture of New Orleans he went up the river with his fleet, and was
engaged in the unsuccessful siege of Vicksburg in July, 1862. During the
second siege of that place, in the summer of 1863, he bombarded the works and
materially assisted Gen. Grant, who commanded the besieging army. For this he
made rear admiral. Porter did not leave Mississippi until his successful
support of General Grant's siege of Vicksburg was completed with General
Pemberton's surrender in July 1863. For his Civil War service, Porter
received four letters of thanks from Congress, and was promoted to Vice
Admiral in 1866. He was also engaged in the two combined attacks on Forth
Fisher, which commands the approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina. The
first of these attempts, at the close of 1864, miscarried; the second, in
January, 1865, was completely successful.
In July, 1866, he was made vice-admiral, and after the death of Farragut, was
promoted, October, 1870, to the rank of admiral, which carried with it the
command of the entire navy of the United States, subject only to the order of
the president. Admiral Porter urged the importance of protecting the coast
approaches to all the large cities of the United States, with heavily armored
minitors, carrying the heaviest guns. David Dixon Porter was nearly forgotten
because his career and accomplishments have often been misinterpreted, when,
in fact, he was arguably the foremost naval hero of the Civil War. Though
Porter rose faster through the ranks, commanded more men and ships, won more
victories, and was awarded more Congressional votes of thanks than any other
officer in the U.S. Navy, historians have been influenced by his own postwar
accounts, which were flawed by an unquenchable ego, thin skin, and a burning
desire to vindicate his equally controversial father. David Dixon Porter was
a firebrand hero of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Fort Fisher.
His unique tactics and techniques rank among the most imaginative and
successful in naval history. The crew onboard Porter's flagship encountered
daring, brilliant attacks against the punishing batteries at Vicksburg and
Fisher and costly failures at Steele's Bayou and Red River. David Dixon
Porter held critical strategy meetings with Sherman and Grant, and a
thrilling chase up and down the coast of South America after Semmes on the
CSS Sumter. David Dixon Porter was a talented fighter and colorful
personality with a marvelous sense of humor, earning respect and friendship
from the likes of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman, but drew the ire of political
generals like Butler, Banks, and McClernand. He was a potent mix of energy,
ambition, courage, and creativity with rash behavior, paranoia, and a taste
for intrigue.
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