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Hull Number: DDG-78

Launch Date: 11/15/1997

Commissioned Date: 03/20/1999

Call Sign: NPOR


Class: ARLEIGH BURKE

ARLEIGH BURKE Class


Namesake: DAVID PORTER AND HIS SON DAVID DIXON PORTER

DAVID PORTER AND HIS SON DAVID DIXON PORTER

Wikipedia (as of 2024)

David Porter (February 1, 1780 – March 3, 1843) was an officer in the United States Navy in the rank of captain and the honorary title of commodore. Porter commanded a number of U.S. naval ships. He saw service in the First Barbary War, the War of 1812 and in the West Indies. On July 2, 1812, Porter hoisted the banner “Free trade and sailors’ rights” as captain of USS Essex.[1] The phrase resonated with many Americans. Porter was later court martialed; he resigned and then joined and became commander-in-chief of the Mexican NavyPorter County, Indiana was named after him.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Porter served in the Quasi-War with France first as midshipman aboard USS Constellation, participating in the capture of L’Insurgente on February 9, 1799; then as 1st lieutenant of Experiment; and finally in command of USS Amphitheatre.[2] During the First Barbary War (1801–07), Porter was first lieutenant of EnterpriseNew York, and Philadelphia and was taken prisoner when the latter ran aground in Tripoli harbor on October 31, 1803. After his release on June 3, 1805, he remained in the Mediterranean as acting captain of USS Constitution and later captain of Enterprise.

Porter married Evalina Anderson, and they had ten children who survived, including six sons. One of these, David Dixon Porter, became an admiral in the U.S. Navy.

Porter purchased the grand home built by the judge and politician David Lloyd in Chester, Pennsylvania. He made many additions, and the home became known as the Porter House. It was destroyed by explosion in 1882.[3]

Porter’s father, David Porter Sr., met and befriended another naval veteran of the RevolutionGeorge Farragut, from the Balearic island of Minorca.[4] In late spring 1808, David Sr. suffered sunstroke, and Farragut took him into his home, where his wife Elizabeth cared for him. Already weakened by tuberculosis, he died on June 22, 1808. Elizabeth Farragut died of yellow fever the same day. Motherless, the Farragut children were to be placed with friends and relatives.

While visiting Farragut and his family a short time later to express thanks for their care of his father and sympathy for their loss, Commodore Porter offered to take eight-year-old James Glasgow Farragut into his own household. Young James readily agreed. In 1809 he moved with Porter to Washington, where he met Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton and expressed his wish for a midshipman’s appointment. Hamilton promised that the appointment would be made as soon as he reached the age of ten; as it happened, the commission came through on December 17, 1810, six months before the boy reached his tenth birthday. When James went to sea soon after with his adoptive father, he changed his name from James to David, and it is as David Glasgow Farragut that he is remembered.[5]

Porter served in the Quasi War with France. He was appointed a midshipman on 16 April 1798. Assigned to Constellation under the command of John Rodgers, he saw action in the battle against L’Insurgente, notably saving the mast by cutting away slings after it was damaged.[6][7] He was then selected as one of twelve men assigned to take possession of the captured ship at the conclusion of the engagement.[7]: 158 

He was promoted to lieutenant on 8 October 1799. As lieutenant he served as second in command of the schooner USS Experiment during the action of 1 January 1800, in which he got shot in his arm. He was promoted to master commandant on 22 April 1806 and was in charge of the naval forces at New Orleans from 1808 to 1810.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Porter was promoted to captain on July 2, 1812, and was assigned as commander of USS Essex. He sailed out of New York harbor with the banner, “Free trade and sailors’ rights” flying from the foretopgallant mast.[1] Captain Porter achieved fame by capturing the first British warship of the conflict, HMS Alert on August 13, 1812, as well as several merchantmen.

In February 1813 he sailed Essex around Cape Horn and cruised the Pacific warring on British whalers. Porter’s first action in the Pacific was the capture of the Peruvian vessel Nereyda, and the releases of the captured American whalers on board. Over the next year, Porter would capture 12 whaleships and 360 prisoners. In June 1813, Porter released his prisoners, on the condition that they not fight against the United States until they were formally exchanged for American prisoners of war. Porter’s usual tactic was to raise British colors to allay the British captain’s suspicions, then once invited on board, he would reveal his true allegiance and purpose.[8]

Porter and his fleet spent October–December 1813 resting and regrouping in the Marquesas Islands, which he claimed in the name of the United States and renamed them the Madison Islands, in honor of then-President James Madison.[8]

On March 28, 1814, Porter was forced to surrender to Captain James Hillyar off Valparaíso after an engagement which became known as the Battle of Valparaiso with the British frigate HMS Phoebe and the sloop-of-war HMS Cherub, when his ship became too disabled to offer any resistance.[8]

In 1814 he was given command of USS Firefly, the flagship of a five ship squadron destined for the West Indies to disrupt British shipping; however, a peace treaty with Britain was signed and the mission was canceled.[citation needed]

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). While in the West Indies suppressing piracy, Porter invaded the town of Fajardo, Puerto Rico (a Spanish colony) to avenge the jailing of an officer from his fleet. The U.S. government did not sanction Porter’s act, and he was court-martialed upon his return to the U.S.[9] Porter resigned from the Navy on August 18, 1826, and, shortly after, entered the Mexican Navy as its commander-in-chief. He held this position from 1826 to 1829.[10]

He left the Mexican service in 1829 and was appointed United States Minister to the Barbary States.[11]

He was appointed as Chargé d’Affaires to the Ottoman Empire by President Andrew Jackson in 1831 and was promoted to Minister Resident in 1840.

He died on March 3, 1843, in ConstantinopleOttoman Empire while serving as United States Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire. He was buried in the cemetery of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum, and then in 1845 reburied in the Woodlands Cemetery in PhiladelphiaPennsylvania.

David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 – February 13, 1891) was a United States Navy admiral and a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the U.S. Navy. Promoted as the second U.S. Navy officer ever to attain the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War.

Porter began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 years 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 Sumter’s 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 U.S. Navy in the joint assaults on Fort Fisher, the final significant naval action of the war.

Porter worked to raise the standards of the U.S. 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.

David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 – February 13, 1891) was a United States Navy admiral and a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the U.S. Navy. Promoted as the second U.S. Navy officer ever to attain the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War.

Porter began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 years 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 Sumter’s 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 U.S. Navy in the joint assaults on Fort Fisher, the final significant naval action of the war.

Porter worked to raise the standards of the U.S. 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.

David Dixon Porter was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on June 8, 1813, to 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.[1]

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 U.S. Navy:

  • William
  • David Dixon, became the second man promoted to rank of admiral.
  • Hambleton, died of yellow fever while a passed midshipman.
  • Henry Ogden
  • Theodoric, became an officer in the US Army; he was killed at Matamoros in the Mexican–American War.[2]

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 USS Levant in 1861.[3] 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).[4] The naval tradition continued into later generations of the family’s descendants.

In addition to rearing their own children, his parents David and Evalina Porter adopted James Glasgow Farragut. The boy’s mother died in 1808 when he was seven, and his father George Farragut, a U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. Congress after the American Civil War.

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.[5] 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.[6]

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, 30 miles (48 km) 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.[7]

David Dixon Porter obtained an official appointment as midshipman in the U.S. 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.[8]

Porter’s last duty as a midshipman was on the frigate USS United States, 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.[9] 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[edit]

Porter and Georgy Patterson were married on March 10, 1839.[10] Of their four sons, three had military careers, and their two surviving daughters married men who had military service or were active officers.[11]

  • Major David Essex Porter served in the army during the Civil War, but resigned after two years in the peacetime army.
  • Captain Theodoric Porter made his career in the navy.
  • Lieutenant Colonel Carlile Patterson Porter was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps; his son, David Dixon Porter II, also served in the Marines, rising to the rank of major general and earning the Medal of Honor.
  • One of their two surviving daughters, Elizabeth, married Leavitt Curtis Logan, who achieved the rank of Rear Admiral.[12]
  • Their other surviving daughter, Elena, married Charles H. Campbell, a former army officer who had left the service before their marriage.[11]
  • Richard Bache Porter was the only child to have no relation to the military services.[11]

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 U.S. Navy’s Hydrographic Office.[13]

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 U.S. 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.[14]

Mexico did not have a real navy, so naval personnel had little opportunity for distinction. Porter served as first lieutenant of the sidewheel gunboat USS Spitfire under Commander Josiah Tattnall III.[15] 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.[16]

On June 13, 1847, 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.[17][18]

In Washington again following the war, Porter saw 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 the 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.[19]

Once again on active duty, he commanded the storeship USS Supply 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.[20]

Porter, on the right, in 1860. The other officers are Sidney Smith Lee and Samuel F. Du Pont.

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.[21]

The seceded states[22] 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.[23] 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 USS Powhatan, 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.[24]

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.[25]

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,[26]

In detaching the Powhatan from the Sumter expedition and giving the command to Porter, Mr. Seward extricated that officer from Secession influences, and committed him at once, and decisively, to the Union cause.

In late 1861, the Navy Department began to develop plans to open the Mississippi River.[27] The first move would be to capture New Orleans. 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.[28]

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.[29]

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.[30]

In the summer of 1862, shortly after Porter left Vicksburg, the U.S. 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.[31] 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.[32]

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,[33]

Relieved Davis and appointed D. D. Porter to the Western Flotilla, which is hereafter to be recognized as a squadron. Porter is but a Commander. He has, however, stirring and positive qualities, is fertile in resources, has great energy, excessive and sometimes not over-scrupulous ambition, is impressed with and boastful of his own powers, given to exaggeration in relation to himself, —a Porter infirmity, —is not generous to older and superior living officers, whom he is too ready to traduce, but is kind and patronizing to favorites who are juniors, and generally to official inferiors. Is given to cliquism but is brave and daring like all his family… It is a question, with his mixture of good and bad traits, how he will succeed.

Thus Commander Porter became Acting Rear Admiral Porter without going through the intermediate ranks of captain and commodore. (He was one of only three US Navy admirals to have been promoted to rear admiral without having first served in the rank of captain. The others being Richard E. Byrd and Ben Moreell.) He was assigned to command the Mississippi Squadron and left Washington for his new command on October 9, 1862, and arrived in Cairo, Illinois, on October 15.[34]

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton considered Porter “a gas bag … blowing his own trumpet and stealing credit which belongs to others.”[35] 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.'”[36]

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.”[37]

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.[38] The other was Major General McClernand, whom he just as quickly came to dislike.[39] 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.[40][41]

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 downstream 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.[42] 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.[43]

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 (1863), Grant was unstinting in his praise of the assistance he had received from Porter and his men.[44]

For his contribution to the victory, Porter’s appointment as “acting” rear admiral was made permanent, dated from July 4.[45]

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,[46] but Banks was influenced by numerous speculators to convert the campaign into little more than a raid to seize cotton.[citation needed] 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.[47]

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.[citation needed] Confederate opposition under Major General Richard Taylor[a] 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.[48]

By late summer 1864, Wilmington, North Carolina, was the only Atlantic port open for running the Union 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.[49] 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 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.[50]

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 commander of the Army of the James, exercised one of the prerogatives of his position to take over 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 USS Louisiana was packed with powder and blown up in the early morning of December 24, 1864. This had, however, no discernible effect on the fort. Butler brought part of his troops ashore, but he was already convinced that the effort was hopeless, so he removed his force before making an all-out assault.[51]

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.[52]

By April 1865, the Civil War drawing to a close, U.S. victory in the war was all but guaranteed. After the Confederate capital of Richmond was captured by U.S. forces, Porter toured the city on foot, accompanying U.S. President Abraham Lincoln with several armed bodyguards. He fondly recalled the events in his 1885 book, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War, where he described witnessing scores of many freed slaves rushing to get a glimpse of Lincoln. They admired the president as a hero and credited him for their emancipation; they were kissing his clothing and singing odes to him:

Twenty years have passed since that event; it is almost too new in history to make a great impression, but the time will come when it will loom up as one of the greatest of man’s achievements, and the name of Abraham Lincoln — who of his own will struck the shackles from the limbs of four millions of people — will be honored thousands of years from now as man’s name was never honored before. […] The scene was so touching I hated to disturb it, yet we could not stay there all day; we had to move on; so I requested the patriarch to withdraw from about the President with his companions and let us pass on.

— David Dixon Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885), pp. 295–296.[53]

A few weeks after his visit to Virginia, Lincoln was assassinated. Porter was greatly upset by the news, as he admired Lincoln greatly. Porter said Lincoln was the best man he ever knew and ever would know. He stated that he felt some responsibility for Lincoln’s death, feeling that had he been with him that night, he might have prevented his murder.[54]

The U.S. Navy was rapidly downsized at the end of the war, and Porter, like most of his contemporaries, had fewer 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.”[55] 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.[56]

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 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 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.[57]

In 1866, the rank of admiral was created in the U.S. Navy. Naval hero David G. Farragut, Porter’s adoptive brother, was selected 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.[58] Porter reached the mandatory retirement age of 62 in June 1875 but was allowed to remain on active duty.

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 naval histories.

On October 4, 1866, Porter was elected a Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society of officers who had served in the Union Armed Force during the Civil War, and was assigned insignia number 29.[59] Porter resigned from the Loyal Legion and returned his insignia on January 4, 1880.[60]

In 1890 he became the founding president of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was assigned national membership number 1801 and District of Columbia Society membership number 1. He served as president of the society until his death the next year. He was also an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

After twenty years of semi-retirement, his health had begun to give way. In the summer of 1890, he suffered a heart attack; he survived but his health was clearly in decline. He died at the age of 77 on the morning of February 13, 1891.[61] He had served on active duty in the U.S. Navy for 62 years, having one of the longest careers in the history of the United States Navy.

Admiral Porter is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.[62]



USS PORTER DDG-78 Ship History

Wikipedia (as of 2024)

USS Porter (DDG-78) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States NavyPorter is the fifth US Navy ship to be named after US Navy officers Commodore David Porter, and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter. This ship is the 28th destroyer of her class. Porter was the 12th ship of this class to be built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was laid down on 2 December 1996, launched and christened on 12 November 1997, and commissioned 20 March 1999, in Port Canaveral, Florida.

From January to July 2003, Porter engaged in combat and support operations of Operation Enduring FreedomOperation Iraqi Freedom, and Joint Task Force (JTF) Cobra. Porter launched Tomahawk missiles during the Dora Farms and Shock and Awe stages of the Iraq War.[4] Porter also worked with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) off the coast of Israel while some Porter Sailors worked with the IDF from the Nevatim base in the Negev desert of Southern Israel.[5]

On 28 October 2007, Porter attacked and sank two pirate skiffs off Somalia after receiving a distress call from the tanker MV Golden Nori which was under attack from pirates.[6]

On 12 November 2009, the Missile Defense Agency announced that Porter would be upgraded during fiscal year 2013 to RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) capability in order to function as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.[7] In 2016 the aft CIWS mount was replaced by a SeaRAM missile system.[8]

In August 2010, Porter and the United States Coast Guard buoy tender USCGC Alder participated in Operation Nanook 2010 in Baffin Bay and the Davis Straits.[9] This was the fourth annual Operation Nanook organized by the Canadian Government, but it was the first to host foreign vessels.

On 12 August 2012, Porter collided with MV Otowasan, an oil tanker, near the Strait of Hormuz.[10] The collision ripped a 3-by-3-meter (10 ft × 10 ft) hole in the starboard side of the destroyer, forcing her to Jebel Ali, Dubai for repairs. No one on either ship was injured.[11][12] Initially Naval Forces Central Command did not provide details about the collision, saying that it was under investigation.[13][14] Porters captain, Commander Martin Arriola, was subsequently removed from command of the ship and replaced by Commander Dave Richardson.[15][16] On 12 October 2012, Porter rejoined Carrier Strike Group 12 for its transit through the Suez Canal following temporary repairs to the ship costing $700,000.[17][18] Later repairs were budgeted at a cost of nearly $50 million.[19]

On 30 April 2015, Porter arrived at Naval Station Rota, Spain. Naval Station Rota is Porters new permanent homeport. Porter joins three other US destroyers at Rota. These four ships are assigned to the United States Sixth Fleet, and will conduct ballistic missile defense patrols in the Mediterranean Sea in support of Commander, US Sixth Fleet’s mission.[20]

In 2016, four destroyers patrolling with the U.S. 6th Fleet based in Naval Station Rota, Spain, including Porter received self-protection upgrades, replacing the aft Phalanx CIWS 20mm Vulcan cannon with the SeaRAM 11-cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launcher. The SeaRam uses the same sensor dome as the Phalanx. This was the first time the close-range ship defense system was paired with an Aegis ship. All four ships to receive the upgrade were either Flight I or II, meaning they originally had two Phalanx CIWS systems when launched.[21][22]

On 7 April 2017, a total of 59 Tomahawk missiles were fired by Porter and Ross at military targets at Shayrat Airbase in HomsSyria, from their positions in the eastern Mediterranean. The missile strike was in response to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack on 4 April 2017, which the U.S. government said was launched by the Syrian regime from Shayrat.[23][24][25][26]

On 21 February 2021, Porter conducted an exercise with the Greek Navy’s HS Adrias with four F-16s off southern Crete.[27]

In June 2022, Porter took part in the naval exercise BALTOPS 2022 in the Baltic Sea, where together with British destroyer HMS Defender (D36) and German frigate Sachsen (F219), she provided an air defense screen for the task group centered around USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44).[28]

On 28 September 2022, Porter departed Naval Station Rota for the last time as part of a homeport shift of the Rota-based destroyers. In October 2022, the Navy announced that Porter arrived at Norfolk after 7 years serving as a Forward-Deployed Naval Forces-Europe (FDNF-E) destroyer.[29] USS Bulkeley replaced Porter at Rota.

Awards