that of the South. He dearly loved his native South, and said,
"God forbid that I should have to raise my hand against her," but
he determined, come what would, to "stick to the flag."

So it came about that when, in order to secure the control of the
Mississippi, the national government resolved upon the capture of
New Orleans, Farragut was chosen to lead the undertaking. Several
officers, noted for their loyalty, good judgment, and daring, were
suggested, but the Secretary of the Navy said, "Farragut is the
man."

The opportunity for which all his previous noble life and
brilliant services had been a preparation came to him when he was
sixty-one years old. The command laid upon him was "the certain
capture of the city of New Orleans." "The department and the
country," so ran his instructions, "require of you success. ... If
successful, you open the way to the sea for the great West, never
again to be closed. The rebellion will be riven in the center, and
the flag, to which you have been so faithful, will recover its
supremacy in every state."

On January 9, 1862, Farragut was appointed to the command of the
western gulf blockading squadron. "On February 2," says the
National Cyclopedia of American Biograph, "he sailed on the steam
sloop Hartford from Hampton Roads, arriving at the appointed
rendezvous, Ship Island, in sixteen days. His fleet, consisting of
six war steamers, sixteen gunboats, twenty-one mortar vessels,
under the command of Commodore David D. Porter, and five supply
ships, was the largest that had ever sailed under the American
flag. Yet the task assigned him, the passing of the forts below