Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-02-14
ADmIRAL PORTER DEAD.

ton of the Heart - sketch of HI,
Life and Achievements.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13.-Admiral David
D. Porter died suddenly at s:15 O'Clock this
morning at his residence, No. 1714 n street.
Death resulted from fatty degeneration of
the heart, from which he suffered at New
port last summer.
David Dixon Porter was born June 8,
1918, at Chester, Pa. He came of the best
naval stock His father, the famous Com
modore David Porter of the war of 1912,
had entered the navy in 1898, taken part
as a midshipman in the capture of the
French frigate Insurgente, and had been
phia, under cambridge, when she went
ashore off Tripoli in 1903. The cruise of
the Essex, which he commanded in 1872
IA, and which swept the English whale
fishery from the Pacific, remaining for
fifteen months without communication
from home, was one of the most brilliant
episodes of the second war with Great
Britain. Three of the commodore's sons
served in the navy and the fourth in the
army.
Young Porter received his education at
Columbian college in Washington, D. c.,
and at the age of fourteen became mid
shipman in the Mexican navy, which his
father had joined after leaving that Of the
United States. After nearly two years of
| the most active service with the Mexicans,
| and taking part in frequent engagements,
he received an appointment as acting mid
shipman in the United States navy, Feb
ruary 5, 1929, and made his first cruise in
the frigate Constellation. He was warrant
| ed midshipman November 25, 1880, and
| in 1882 made second cruise in the frigate
United States, in the squadron of
Commodore Patterson. July 8, 1885, he
received a warrant as passed mid
| he was promoted to lieutenant. During
| the intermediate years his service was al
most wholly with the coast survey, being
largely taken up with photographic sur
| veys on the coast of the United States
| From 1912 to 1916 Porter was attached to
| the frigate Congress in the Mediterranean
| and afterward served at the photographic
Office and at the observatory. During the
spring of 1916 he was employed by Mr..
Bancroft on a confidential mission to San
Domingo in order to ascertain and report
upon the condition of the people. The
service was one of great hardship and
was performed with tact and good sense
| In 1916 he took charge of the naval
| rendezvous at New Orleans, whence
| on the outbreak of the Mexican
| war, he went to join the home squadron.
small steamers of the Mosquito feet, and
took part in nearly every action on the
east coast of Mexico during the war.
The next few years were divided be-
tween the command of the Petrol, on the
coast survey, and of the mail steamers
Panama and Georgia of the California line.
In 1866 Porter commanded the Supply on
special service in the Mediterranean, and
upon his return he was attached to the
navy yard at Portsmouth, N. II. Thence,
in 1860, he came to Washington, as Blu
chanan's administration was drawing to a
close.
After the fall of the forts Porter took
his steamers to Mobile entrance, and while
lying off the bar, on the night of May 8,
his attention was attracted by a bright
light in the direction of Pensacola. Get
ting under way, he arrived at daylight off
The harbor, and found himself just in time
to join with the garrison of Fort Pickens
in securing possession of the defences
which the confederates, having sent most of
their guns to Vicksburg, were unable
longer to hold, and had concluded to aban-
don.
Farragut was now making his way up
the Mississippi, and on the 18th of June
the advance vessels of the fleet arrived be-
low Vicksburg. Presently the Hartford
Joined them, accompanied by Porter and
the motar fotilla On the Goth and 9th,
the "bummers," as Porter's mortar schoon-
ers we're universally called, shelled the
works. and on the 2Sth, Farragut made
the passage up. The fotilla covered the
passage, and Porter, with his usual bril-
liant audacity, placed his seven steamers
1 200 yards from the water battery, and
poured in hot fire, keeping his position
until the fleet had passed. After the pas
sage, as there was nothing further for him
to do in that quarter, he took the fotilla
down to New Orleans; and towards the
end of the month of July, under orders
from the department, he returned to
Washington. This ended his connection
with the gulf squadron.
The Mississippi squadron, which occu-
pied the river above Vicksburg, originally
commanded by Foote, and short time by
Davis, was a nondescript collection of more
than hundred gun vessels, golfers, trans
ports, storeships, hospital-ships, beef boats,
mail boats, and other auxiliary craft. The
so-called ships of war were of the most
various type, as to shape, size, speed, ar
nament, armor, and every other quality,
comprising ironclads, light-draft tinclads,
mortar boats, converted river-boats, and
rams The admiraPs station was near the
city, at first above, between Helena and
the Yazoo, and after the middle of
April just below. Farragut was now be-
low Port Hudson, and the river for two or
three hundred miles above this point, as
far as Vicksburg, was in the undisturbed
possession OF the Confederates. The
operations of the fleet during this period
were of the most novel and original char
acter, and the ingenuity with which they
were planned and the vigor and audacity
with which they were executed, constitute
the real foundation of Porter's distinction
as one of the greatest of modern naval
commanders.
The first move was ade in December, 1862
| while General Sherman was in command
of the army. The lower Yazoo was cleared
of torpedoes by the gunboats, one ofwhich,
| the ironclad Cairo, was sunk in the opera
ton. The fleet advanced up the river and
| covered the landing of the army, but the
subsequent assault on Chicksaw Bluffs
ended in a repulse, and the attempt to
capture Vicksburg on that side was aban
| doned.
| In January, 1868, Porter conducted the
famous expedition against Arkansas Post,
| in connection with General McClernand,
| who had succeeded Sherman. The trans
ports were conveyed up the Arkansas
river, and the army landed below the fort.
Porter Immediately shelled the for. with
the DeKalb, Louisville and Cincinnati, IN
til its guns were disabled and its armored
classmates were pounded into fragments.
| Inc rest OF une ueet paSseu ehe Aole anu,
taking position above, Joined in the can
nonade. On the following day, when the
troops began their assault, the fort was
ready to surrender.
At the end of January, General Grant
assumed the command. The army was
still above Vicksburg, and the failure of
the assault in December showed the i'm
possibility of successful attack on that
side. The problem was to get in the rear
of the city. The obstacle was the character
of the Yazoo Delta, the long oval valley,
for the most part an impenetrable swamp,
traversed by a network of narrow streams,
which stretched for 200 miles to the north
of Vicksburg.
Porter resolved to penetrate the Delta.
The first attempt was the Yazoo Pass eIpe-
! dition, which consumed the months of
February and March. The levee was cut
at Yazoo Pass, at the head of the Delta,
! and the waters of the Mississippi filled up
all the channels in the valley. Immediate
ly afterwards a force of ironclads, rams
and tinclads was sent through the opening
, | to make its way down the swollen streams
!, | into the Yazoo. The expedition was well
q | conceived, and but for delays in execution,
outside the admirals control, would have
| ,roved q auccaaa Ruf hefOra il reached