(1813–1891), American admiral

Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, Porter was the son of David Porter, naval hero in the War of 1812. A midshipman in the U.S. Navy at sixteen, young Porter commanded his first ship at thirty‐three during the Mexican War. In the Civil War, he became one of the leading commanders in the Union Navy. In April 1862 during the Siege of New Orleans, he led a flotilla of twenty‐one small gunboats each with a 13‐inch heavy mortar, which bombarded the forts guarding the narrow channel, enabling Adm. David Farragut's fleet of warships to get upriver and successfully besiege the city itself. During the following year, Porter, in charge of the gunboats, ironclads, and supply ships on the Mississippi north of Vicksburg, aided Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman in their long and ultimately successful Siege of Vicksburg (1862–1863) and establishment of Union control of the entire Mississippi River. Promoted to rear admiral—after Farragut, the second in U.S. history to hold that rank—Porter assumed command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the naval portion of two joint land‐sea expeditions in the winter of 1864–1865 against Fort Fisher, guarding the port of Wilmington, North Carolina. After Gen. Benjamin F. Butler failed in his assault, Gen. Alfred Terry succeeded with the support of Porter's sizable fleet, which bombarded the fort and sent 2,000 sailors and marines to join 8,000 soldiers in storming the parapets, achieving the only successful large‐scale amphibious attack against a strongly fortified position in the Civil War. After the war, Porter served as superintendent (1865–1869) of the U.S. Naval Academy. He was promoted to vice admiral (1866) and full admiral (1870) on the death of Farragut. The two officers, aggressive and successful in their coordinated efforts with the Union Army, were the leading Union naval commanders of the Civil War.

Bibliography

• Richard S. West, Jr., The Second Admiral: A Life of David Dixon Porter, 1813–1891, 1937
• Chester G. Hearn, Admiral David Dixon Porter: The Civil War Years, 1996

For more information on David Porter, visit Britannica.com.

1780–1843, American naval officer, b. Boston. Appointed a midshipman in 1798, he served in the West Indies and in the war with Tripoli. In 1803 his ship, the Philadelphia, was captured off the coast of Tripoli, and Porter was a prisoner until peace was declared in 1805. He achieved his greatest success as commander of the Essex in the War of 1812. In that year he captured several British ships carrying troops to Halifax and the British war vessel Alert. Then, accompanied by young David Farragut, he sailed the Essex around the Horn and cruised in the Pacific, warring on British commercial vessels. He took formal possession of Nuku Hiva, one of the Marquesas Islands, in Nov., 1813, but this act was not recognized by the U.S. government. In 1814 the Essex was blockaded by British ships in the harbor of Valparaiso, Chile. Porter escaped to sea, but a squall disabled his ship, forcing him back to the coast. He was attacked by two British warships and after a hard-fought battle was forced to surrender. While in the West Indies in 1824 on an expedition for suppressing piracy, Porter forced the officials of the town of Foxardo (Fajardo), Puerto Rico, to apologize for jailing an officer from his fleet. The government did not sanction Porter's act, and he was court-martialed and suspended for six months. Porter resigned and in 1826 entered the Mexican navy as its head. Disgusted with the jealous intrigues of the Mexican officers, he resigned in 1829. After his return to the United States, he became (1831) chargé d'affaires and later (1839) minister at Constantinople and held this post until his death.

Bibliography

See biographies by his son, David Dixon Porter (1875), and D. F. Long (1970); R. Wheeler, In Pirate Waters (1969).

(1780-1843)

1815	A Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean. A factual account of the naval officer's service in the Pacific protecting American trade during the War of 1812. The Journal includes a passage Herman Melville would use in The Encantadas.

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