THREE DAVID PORTER (1847-74)

DAVID PORTER

Neval officer who commanded the frigate Essex on her unprecedented two-year expedition against British shipping during the War of 1812.

As a youth Porter accompanied his father -who had been a Revolutionary War naval commander- on sea voyages.

He became a mindshipman in 1798, was promoted to lieutenant in 1799 and took part in the undeclared war against France (1799) and the war with Tripoli (1801-05).

Promoted to captain in 1812 he won a formidable reputation as commander of the Essex durin the next two years. 
His was the first U.S. warship to become active in Pacific waters.
He captured a large number of British whaling vessels and claimed Nuku Hiva one of the Marquesas Islands for the U.S. in 1813.
He was blockaded in February 1814 by British frigates in the harbour of Valparaíso Chile and was defeated at the end of March.

From 1815 to 1823 Porter was a member of the new Board of Naval Commissioners; as commodore he then commanded a squadron sent to the West Indies to suppress piracy.

From 1826 to 1829 he served as commander in chief of the Mexican Navy and later as a consular officer in Algiers and minister at Constantinople-Istanbul.

He was the father of U.S. naval officer David Dixon Porter.


DAVID DIXON PORTER

U.S. naval officer who held important Union commands during the U.S. Civil War (1861-65).

Porter was the son and grandson of U.S. naval officers.

He served in the Mexican War (1846-48) and was promoted to commander early in the Civil War.

He participated in Union expedition against New Orleans and Vicksburg (April-June 1862) under his foster brother Comdr. David Farragut.

In January 1863 Porter commanded gun vessels during the capture of the Arkansas Post.

In the spring of 1863 Union forces attempted to converge on the important Confederate fortress at Vicksburg, halfway between Memphis and New Orleans on the Mississipi River.
Unsuccessful attempts were made by Porter´s vessels to penetrate connecting streams and bayouls to the Yazoo River and reach the right rear of the Southern defenses on the well-fortified bluffs.
In April his fleet finally succeded in running past the Vicksburg batteries followed by four boats towing large barges.
He next overcame the Confederate forts at Grand Gulf enabling the North to control the river and arrange a meeting with the troops on the invading Union army under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Bruinsburg.
Grant´s troops then took the city and the join army-navy effort effectively cut the Condederacy in two.

He received the thanks of Congress for "opening the Mississipi" and was promoted to rear admiral.
He next cooperated in the Red River Campaign (March-May 1864) in which his gunboats held above Alexandria by shallow water and rapids narrowly escaped isolation.
In October he assumed command of the North Atlantic blockading squadron and was eventually responsible for the fall of Ft. Fisher North Carolina (January 1865) for which he again received the thanks of Congress.

From 1865 to 1869 Porter was superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.
He also served in the Navy Department (1869) and waspromoted to admiral in 1870.
He wrote several books including Memoirs of Commodore David Porter (1875) and The Naval History of the Civil War (1886).
His novels include The Adventures of Harry Marline (1885), Allan Dare and Robert le Diable, 2 vol. (1885) and Arthur Merton (1889).

A biography is J.R. Soley´s Admiral Porter (1903).