Namesake:
Vice Admiral Davis Dixon Porter
Davis Dixon Porter was born on June 8, 1814, 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 seige
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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