David Dixon Porter David Dixon Porter ( June 8 , 1813 – February 13 , 1891 ) was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy . Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral , after his adoptive brother David G . Farragut , Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the US Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War . He began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 under his father , Commodore David Porter , on the frigate USS " John Adams " . For the remainder of his life , he was associated with the sea . Porter served in the Mexican War in the attack on the fort at the City of Vera Cruz . At the outbreak of the Civil War , he was part of a plan to hold Fort Pickens , near Pensacola , Florida , for the Union ; its execution disrupted the effort to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumter , leading to its fall . Porter commanded an independent flotilla of mortar boats at the capture of New Orleans . Later , he was advanced to the rank of ( acting ) rear admiral in command of the Mississippi River Squadron , which cooperated with the army under Major General Ulysses S . Grant in the Vicksburg campaign . After the fall of Vicksburg , he led the naval forces in the difficult Red River Campaign in Louisiana . Late in 1864 , Porter was transferred from the interior to the Atlantic coast , where he led the Navy in the joint assaults on Fort Fisher , the final significant naval action of the war . Porter worked to raise the standards of the US Navy in the position of superintendent of the Naval Academy when it was restored to Annapolis . He initiated reforms in the curriculum to increase professionalism . In the early days of President Grant ' s administration , Porter was " de facto " Secretary of the Navy . When his adoptive brother David G . Farragut was advanced from rank of vice - admiral to admiral , Porter took his previous position ; likewise , when Farragut died , Porter became the second man to hold the newly created rank of admiral . He gathered a corps of like - minded officers devoted to naval reform . Porter ' s administration of the Navy Department aroused powerful opposition by some in Congress , who forced the Secretary of the Navy Adolph E . Borie to resign . His replacement , George Robeson , curtailed Porter ' s power and eased him into semi - retirement . Family . David Dixon Porter was born in Chester , Pennsylvania on June 8 , 1813 , a son of David Porter and Evalina ( Anderson ) Porter . The family had strong naval traditions ; the elder Porter ' s father , also named David , had been captain of a Massachusetts vessel in the American Revolutionary War , as had his uncle Samuel . In the next generation , David Porter and his brother John entered the fledgling United States Navy and served with distinction during the War of 1812 . David Porter was named to the rank of commodore . The younger David was one of 10 children , including six boys . His youngest brother Thomas died of yellow fever at the age of ten , contracted when traveling with his father for the Mexican Navy . The surviving five sons all became officers , four in the US Navy : His uncle John Porter and his wife did not have as many children , but their son Fitz John Porter was a major general in the US Army at the time of the Civil War . Another son , Bolton Porter , was lost with his ship in 1861 . His aunt Anne married their cousin Alexander Porter . Their son David Henry Porter became a captain in the Mexican Navy during its struggle for independence . ( see below ) The naval tradition continued into later generations of the family ' s descendants . In addition to rearing their own children , his parents David and Emalina Porter adopted James Glasgow Farragut . The boy ' s mother died in 1808 when he was seven , and his father George Farragut , a US naval officer in the American Revolution and friend of David Porter Sr . , was unable to care for all his children . Commodore David Porter offered to adopt James , to which the boy and George agreed . In 1811 , James started serving a midshipman under Porter in the US Navy , and changed his first name to David . He had a distinguished career as David G . Farragut , serving as the first man to attain the new rank of admiral , instituted by the US Congress after the American Civil War . Time of training . In the Mexican Navy . After a reprimand for an 1824 incident , Commodore David Porter decided to resign from the navy rather than submit . He accepted an offer from the government of Mexico to become their General of Marine – in effect , the commander of their navy . He took with him a nephew , David Henry Porter , and his sons , David Dixon and Thomas . The two boys were made midshipmen . Thomas died of yellow fever soon after arriving in Mexico ; he was 10 . David Dixon , age 12 , was not affected by the disease . He was able to serve on the frigate " Libertad , " where he saw little action , and on the captured merchantman " Esmeralda " for a raid on Spanish shipping in Cuban waters . In 1828 , David Dixon accompanied his cousin , David Henry Porter , captain of the brig " Guerrero , " in another raid . " Guerrero , " mounting 22 guns , was one of the finest vessels in the small Mexican Navy . Off the coast of Cuba on February 10 , 1828 , she encountered a flotilla of about fifty schooners , convoyed by Spanish brigs " Marte " and " Amalia . " Captain Porter elected to attack , and soon forced the flotilla to seek refuge in the harbor at Mariel , west of Havana . The Spanish 64 - gun frigate " Lealtad " put to sea . " Guerrero " was able to break off the action and escape , but overnight Captain Porter decided to circle back and attack the vessels at Mariel . Intercepted by " Lealtad , " he could not escape . In the battle , Captain Porter was killed , together with many of his crew ; the young midshipman Porter was slightly wounded . He was among the survivors who surrendered and were imprisoned in Havana until they could be exchanged . Commodore Porter chose not to risk his son again , and sent him back to the United States by way of New Orleans . Peacetime navy . David Dixon Porter obtained an official appointment as midshipman in the US Navy through his grandfather , US Congressman William Anderson . The appointment was dated February 2 , 1829 , when he was sixteen years of age ; this was somewhat older than many midshipmen , some of whom had been taken in as boys . Due to his relative maturity and experience , greater than that of most naval lieutenants , Porter tended to be cocky and challenge some of his superiors , leading to conflict . Except for intervention by Commodore James Biddle , who acted favorably because Porter ' s father was a hero , his warrant as a midshipman would not have been renewed . Porter ' s last duty as a midshipman was on frigate , flagship of Commodore Daniel Patterson , from June 1832 until October 1834 . Patterson ' s family accompanied him , including his daughter , George Ann ( " Georgy " ) . The two young people renewed their acquaintance and became engaged . After Porter returned home , he completed the examination for passed midshipman , and soon after was assigned to duty in the Coast Survey . There , his pay was such that he could save enough to marry . Marriage and family . Porter and Georgy Patterson were married on March 10 , 1839 . Of their four sons , three had military careers , and their two surviving daughters married men who had military service or were active officers . Advance to officer . In March 1841 , Porter was promoted in rank to lieutenant , and in April of the next year he was detached from the Coast Survey . He had a brief tour of duty in the Mediterranean , and then he was assigned to the US Navy ' s Hydrographic Office . Mission to Santo Domingo . In 1846 , the era of peace was coming to a close . The United States had annexed the Republic of Texas , and the islands of the Caribbean seemed to be likely targets for further expansion . The Republic of Santo Domingo ( the present - day Dominican Republic ) had broken off from the Republic of Haiti in 1844 , and the United States State Department needed to determine the new nation ' s social , political , and economic stability . The suitability of the Bay of Samana for US Navy operations was also of interest . To find out , Secretary of State James Buchanan asked Porter to undertake a private investigation . He accepted the assignment , and on March 15 , 1846 , he left home . He arrived in Santo Domingo after some unexpected delays and spent two weeks mapping the coastline . On May 19 , he began a trek through the interior that left him without communication for a month . On June 19 , he emerged from the jungle , bitten by insects , but with the information that the State Department wanted . He then discovered that while he was away the United States had gone to war with Mexico . In command of ships . Mexican War . Mexico did not have a real navy , so naval personnel had little opportunity for distinction . Porter served as first lieutenant of the sidewheel gunboat under Commander Josiah Tattnall . " Spitfire " was at Vera Cruz when General Winfield Scott led the amphibious assault on the city , which was shielded by a series of forts and the ancient Castle of San Juan de Ulloa . Porter had spent many hours exploring the castle when he had been a midshipman in the Mexican Navy , so he was familiar with both its strengths and its weaknesses . He submitted a plan to attack it to Captain Tattnall . Taking eight oarsmen and the ship ' s gig , he sounded out a channel on the night of March 22 – 23 , 1847 , using the experience he had gained with the Coast Survey . The next morning , " Spitfire " and other vessels taking part in the bombardment followed the channel that Porter had laid out and took up positions inside the harbor , where they were able to pound the forts and castle . Doing so meant , however , that they had to run by the forts , which was contrary to the orders of Commodore Matthew C . Perry . Perry sent signals ordering the vessels to break off the bombardment and return , but Tattnall ordered his men not to look at the commodore ' s signals . Not until a special messenger came with explicit orders to retire did Maffitt cease firing . Perry appreciated the audacity shown by his subordinates , but did not approve of the way they had disregarded his orders . Henceforth , he kept " Spitfire " by his side . In June 13 , 1847 , Matthew C . Perry mounted an expedition to capture the interior town of Tabasco . Porter on his own led a charge of 68 sailors to capture the fort defending the city . Perry rewarded him for his initiative by making him captain of " Spitfire . " It was his first command . It brought him no advantages , however , as the naval part of the war was essentially over . Civilian service . In Washington again following the war , Porter had little chance for professional improvement and none for advancement . In order to gain experience in handling steamships , he took leave of absence from the Navy to command civilian ships . He insisted that his crews submit to the methods of military discipline ; his employers were noncommittal about his methods , but they were impressed by the results . They asked him to stay in Australia , but his health and the health of his eldest daughter Georgianne persuaded him to return . Back in the United States , he moved his family from Washington to New York in hope that the climate would benefit his daughter , but she died shortly after the move . His second daughter , Evalina ( " Nina " ) also died in the interwar period . Once again on active duty , he commanded the storeship in a venture to bring camels to the United States . The project was promoted by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis , who thought that the desert animals could be useful for the cavalry in the arid Southwest . " Supply " made two successful trips before Secretary Davis left office and the experiment was discontinued . In 1859 , he received an attractive offer from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to be captain of a ship then under construction . The offer would be effective when she was complete . He would have accepted , but he was delayed in his departure . Before he could leave , war had broken out again . Civil War . " Powhatan " and the relief of Fort Pickens . The seceded states laid claim to the national forts within their boundaries , but they did not make good their claim to Fort Sumter in South Carolina and Forts Pickens , Zachary Taylor , and Jefferson in Florida . They soon made it clear that they would use force if necessary to gain possession of Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens . President Abraham Lincoln resolved not to cede them without a fight . Secretary of State William H . Seward , Captain Montgomery C . Meigs of the US Army , and Porter devised a plan for the relief of Fort Pickens . The principal element of their plan required use of the steam frigate , which would be commanded by Porter and would carry reinforcements to the fort from New York . Because no one was above suspicion in those days , the plan had to be implemented in complete secrecy ; not even Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was to be advised . Welles was in the meantime preparing an expedition for the relief of the garrison at Fort Sumter . As he was unaware that " Powhatan " would not be available , he included it in his plans . When the other vessels assigned to the effort showed up , the South Carolina troops at Charleston began to bombard Fort Sumter , and the Civil War was on . The relief expedition could only wait outside the harbor . The expedition had little chance to be successful in any case ; without the support of the guns on " Powhatan , " it was completely impotent . The only contribution made by the expedition was to carry the soldiers who had defended Fort Sumter back to the North following their surrender and parole . Lincoln did not punish Seward for his part in the incident , so Welles felt that he had no choice but to forgive Porter , whose culpability was less . Later , he reasoned that it had at least a redeeming feature in that Porter , whose loyalty had been suspect , was henceforth firmly attached to the Union . As he wrote , Mortar fleet at New Orleans and Vicksburg . In late 1861 , the Navy Department began to develop plans to open the Mississippi River . The first move would be to capture New Orleans , Louisiana . For this Porter , by this time advanced to rank of commander , was given the responsibility of organizing a flotilla of some twenty mortar boats that would participate in the reduction of the forts defending the city from the south . The flotilla was a semi - autonomous part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron , which was to be commanded by Porter ' s adoptive brother Captain David G . Farragut . The bombardment of Fort Jackson and Fort St . Philip began on April 18 , 1862 . Porter had opined that two days of concentrated fire would be enough to reduce the forts , but after five days they seemed as strong as ever . The mortars were beginning to run low on ammunition . Farragut , who put little reliance on the mortars anyway , made the decision to bypass the forts on the night of April 24 . The fleet successfully ran past the forts ; the mortars were left behind , but they bombarded the forts during the passage in order to distract the enemy gunners . Once the fleet was above the forts , nothing significant stood between them and New Orleans ; Farragut demanded the surrender of the city , and it fell to his fleet on April 29 . The forts were still between him and Porter ' s mortar fleet , but when the latter again began to pummel Fort Jackson , its garrison mutinied and forced its surrender . Fort St . Philip had to follow suit . Surrender of the two forts was accepted by Commander Porter on April 28 . Following orders from the Navy Department , Farragut took his fleet upstream to capture other strongpoints on the river , with the aim of complete possession of the Mississippi . At Vicksburg , Mississippi he found that the bluffs were too high to be reached by the guns of his fleet , so he ordered Porter to bring his mortar flotilla up . The mortars suppressed the Rebel artillery well enough that Farragut ' s ships could pass the batteries at Vicksburg and link up with a Union flotilla coming down from the north . The city could not be taken , however , without active participation by the army , which did not happen . On July 8 , the bombardment ceased when Porter was ordered to Hampton Roads to assist in Major General George B . McClellan ' s Peninsula campaign . A few days later , Farragut followed , and the first attempt to take Vicksburg was over . Acting rear admiral : the Vicksburg campaign . In the summer of 1862 , shortly after Porter left Vicksburg , the US Navy was extensively modified ; among the features of the revised organization were a set of officer ranks from ensign to rear admiral that paralleled the ranks in the Army . Among the new ranks created were those of commodore and rear admiral . According to the organization charts , the persons in command of the blockading squadrons were to be rear admirals . Another part of the reorganization transferred the Western gunboat flotilla from the army to the navy , and retitled it the Mississippi River Squadron . The change of title implied that it was formally equivalent to the other squadrons , so its commanding officer would likewise be a rear admiral . The problem was that the commandant of the gunboat flotilla , Flag Officer Charles H . Davis , had not shown the initiative that the Navy Department wanted , so he had to be removed . He was made rear admiral , but he was recalled to Washington to serve as chief of the Bureau of Navigation . Most of the men who could have replaced Davis were either less suitable or were unavailable because of other assignments , so finally Secretary Welles decided to appoint Porter to the position . He did this despite some doubt . As he wrote in his " Diary , " Thus Commander Porter became Acting Rear Admiral Porter without going through the intermediate ranks of captain and commodore . He left Washington for his new command on October 9 and arrived in Cairo , Illinois on October 15 . Secretary of War Edwin Stanton considered Porter " a gas bag . . . blowing his own trumpet and stealing credit which belongs to others . " Historian John D . Winters , in his " The Civil War in Louisiana " , describes Porter as having " possessed the qualities of abundant energy , recklessness , resourcefulness , and fighting spirit needed for the trying role ahead . Porter was assigned the task of aiding General John A . McClernand in opening the upper Mississippi . The choice of McClernand , a volunteer political general , pleased Porter because he felt that all West Point men were ' too self - sufficient , pedantic , and unpractical . ' " Winters also writes that Porter " revealed a weakness he was to display many times : he belittled a superior officer [ Charles H . Poor ] . He often heaped undue praise upon a subordinate , but rarely could find much to admire in a superior . " The Army was showing renewed interest in opening the Mississippi River at just this time , and Porter met two men who would have great influence on the campaign . First was Major General William T . Sherman , a man of similar temperament to his own , with whom he immediately formed a particularly strong friendship . The other was Major General McClernand , whom he just as quickly came to dislike . Later they would be joined by Major General Ulysses S . Grant ; Grant and Porter became friends and worked together quite well , but it was on a more strictly professional level than his relation with Sherman . Close cooperation between the Army and Navy was vital to the success of the siege of Vicksburg . The most prominent contribution to the campaign was the passage of the batteries at Vicksburg and Grand Gulf by a major part of the Mississippi River Squadron . Grant had asked merely for a few gunboats to shield his troops , but Porter persuaded him to use more than half of his fleet . After nightfall on April 16 , 1863 , the fleet moved past the batteries . Only one vessel was lost in the ensuing firefight . Six nights later , a similar run past the batteries gave Grant the transports he needed for crossing the river . Now south of Vicksburg , Grant at first tried to attack the Rebels through Grand Gulf , and requested Porter to eliminate the batteries there before his troops would be sent across . On April 29 , the gunboats spent most of the day bombarding two Confederate forts . They succeeded in silencing the lower of the two , but the upper fort remained . Grant called off the assault and moved downstream to Bruinsburg , where he was able to cross the river unopposed . Although the fleet made no major offensive contributions to the campaign after Grand Gulf , it remained important in its secondary role of keeping the blockade against the city . When Vicksburg was besieged , the encirclement was made complete by the Navy ' s control of the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers . When it finally fell on July 4 , Grant was unstinting in his praise of the assistance he had received from Porter and his men . For his contribution to the victory , Porter ' s appointment as " acting " rear admiral was made permanent , dated from July 4 . Red River Expedition . After the opening of the Mississippi , the political general Nathaniel P . Banks , who was in charge of army forces in Louisiana , brought pressure on the Lincoln administration to mount a campaign across Louisiana and into Texas along the line of the Red River . The ostensible purpose was to extend Union control into Texas , but Banks was influenced by numerous speculators to convert the campaign into little more than a raid to seize cotton . Admiral Porter was not in favor ; he thought that the next objective of his fleet should be to capture Mobile , but he received direct orders from Washington to cooperate with Banks . After considerable delays caused by Banks ' s attention to political rather than military matters , the Red River expedition got under way in early March 1864 . From the start , navigation of the river presented as great a problem for Porter and his fleet as did the Confederate army that opposed them . The army under Banks and the navy under Porter did little to cooperate , and instead often became rivals in a race to seize cotton . The Rebel opposition under Major General Richard Taylor succeeded in keeping them apart by defeating Banks at the Battle of Mansfield , following which Banks gave up the expedition . From that time on , Porter ' s primary task was to extricate his fleet . The task was made difficult by falling water levels in the river , but he ultimately got most out , with the help of heroic efforts by some of the soldiers who stayed to protect the fleet . Capture of Fort Fisher . By late summer 1864 , Wilmington , North Carolina was the only port open for running the blockade , and the Navy Department began to plan to close it . Its major defense was Fort Fisher , a massive structure at the New Inlet to the Cape Fear River . Secretary Welles believed that the head of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee , was inadequate for the task , so he at first assigned Rear Admiral Farragut to be Lee ' s replacement . Farragut was too ill to serve , however , so Welles then decided to switch Lee with Porter : Lee would command the Mississippi River Squadron , and Porter would come east and prepare for the attack on Fort Fisher . The planned attack on Fort Fisher required the cooperation of the army , and the troops were taken from the Army of the James . It was expected that Brigadier General Godfrey Weitzel would command , but Major General Benjamin F . Butler , the commandant of the Army of the James , exercised one of the prerogatives of his position to install himself as leader of the expedition . Butler proposed that the fort could be flattened by exploding a ship filled with gunpowder near it , and Porter accepted the idea ; if successful , the scheme would avoid a protracted siege or its alternative , a frontal assault . Accordingly , the old steamer was packed with powder and blown up in the early morning of December 24 , 1864 . It had , however , no discernible effect on the fort . Butler brought part of his troops ashore , but he was already convinced that it was hopeless , so he removed his force before making an all - out assault . Porter , enraged by Butler ' s timorousness , went to U . S . Grant and demanded that Butler be removed . Grant agreed , and placed Major General Alfred H . Terry in charge of a second assault on the fort . The second assault began on January 13 , 1865 , with unopposed landings and bombardment of the fort by the fleet . Porter imposed new methods of bombardment this time : each ship was assigned a specific target , with intent to destroy the enemy ' s guns rather than to knock down the walls . They were also to continue firing after the men ashore started their assault ; the ships would shift their aim to points ahead of the advancing troops . The bombardment continued for two more days , while Terry got his men into position . On the 15th , frontal assaults on opposite faces by Terry ' s soldiers on the land side and 2000 sailors and marines on the beach vanquished the fort . This was the last significant naval operation of the war . Postwar . Naval academy . The US Navy was rapidly downsized at the end of the war , and Porter , like most of his contemporaries , had no more ships to command . Some feared that at sea he might provoke a foreign war , particularly with Great Britain , because of what he saw as their support for the Confederacy . To make use of his undeniable talents , Secretary Welles appointed him superintendent of the Naval Academy in 1865 . The academy at that time did little to prepare men for the duties that were expected of them . Porter resolved to change that ; he determined to make the Academy the rival of the Military Academy at West Point . The curriculum was revised to reflect the reality of naval life , organized sports were encouraged , discipline was enforced , and even social graces were taught . An honor system was installed , " to send honorable men from this institution into the Navy . " To be sure that his reforms would remain in place after his departure , he brought to the faculty a group of like - minded men , mostly young officers who had distinguished themselves in the war . Presidency of U . S . Grant . When Porter ' s friend Ulysses S . Grant became president in 1869 , he appointed Philadelphia businessman Adolph E . Borie as Secretary of the Navy . Borie had no knowledge of the navy and little desire to learn , so he leaned on Porter for advice that the latter was quite willing to give . In a short time , Borie came to defer to him even on trivial routine matters . Porter used his influence with the secretary to push through several policies to shape the navy as he wanted it ; in the process , he made a new set of enemies who either were harmed by his actions or merely resented his blunt methods . Borie was strongly criticized for his failure to control his subordinate , and after three months he resigned . The new secretary , George Robeson , promptly curtailed Porter ' s powers . Final years . In 1866 , the rank of admiral was created in the US Navy . Naval hero David G . Farragut , his adoptive brother , was named as the nation ' s first admiral , and Porter became vice admiral at the same time . In 1870 , Farragut died , and it was expected that Porter would be promoted to fill the vacancy . Eventually , he did become the second admiral , but it was after much controversy that was provoked by his many enemies . Among them were several very powerful politicians , including some of the political generals he had contended with in the war . Despite the prestige of the high rank , Porter ' s eclipse in influence continued . For the last twenty years of his life , he had little to do with the operations of the navy . Porter turned to writing , producing some histories that are of doubtful reliability but provide insights into his own beliefs and character . He also wrote some fiction that has not withstood the test of time . After twenty years of semi - retirement , his health began to give way . In the summer of 1890 , he suffered a heart attack ; he survived but was clearly in decline . He died at the age of 77 on the morning of February 13 , 1891 .