Porter family

Introduction to Porter family

Porter, the family name of two United States naval officers, father and son.

David Porter

(1780–1843), the father, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At 16 he went to sea with his father. At 18 he was a midshipman on the Constellation when it captured the French L'Insurgente during the undeclared naval war with France (1798–1800). In the war with Tripoli that began in 1801, Porter commanded the Enterprise and was aboard the Philadelphia when it was captured in 1803. He was held prisoner until the war's end in 1805.

In the War of 1812 Porter as captain took the Essex around Cape Horn. For more than a year he got food and supplies for his frigate from captured ships, including 12 British whalers. In 1814 the Essex was captured by the British Phoebe and Cherub after a desperate fight at Valparaiso, Chile. Porter lost 155 of 225 men.

In 1823 Porter took command of a squadron suppressing piracy in the West Indies. When one of his officers was arrested in Puerto Rico, Porter seized a fort. For this he was suspended for six months. He resigned in 1826 and took command of the Mexican navy in fighting against Spain. In 1830 he became U.S. consul general in Algiers. He died in Constantinople while minister to Turkey. Porter was the guardian of young David G. Farragut (later the first admiral in the U.S. Navy) and was instrumental in his embarking on a naval career.

David Dixon Porter

(1813–1891), the son, was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. At 10 he sailed with his father to the West Indies. He served in the Mexican navy and was taken prisoner by the Spanish following the capture of his ship during a period of conflict between Spain and its former colony. In 1829 Porter entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman. He fought at Veracruz and Tabasco in the Mexican War. After the war, he commanded merchant ships until 1855, when he went back on active duty with the Navy.

During the Civil War, Porter played an important role in several major naval actions. He commanded a mortar flotilla (a fleet of mortar-equipped boats) under Farragut, his foster brother, in the capture of New Orleans, then took command of the Navy's Mississippi Squadron. Porter's ships provided naval support in 1863 in Union victories at Arkansas Post and Grand Gulf, and in the capture of Vicksburg, after which he was promoted to rear admiral. He led naval forces in the Red River Campaign in Texas in 1864 and then commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, which captured Fort Fisher in North Carolina in 1865.

Porter reorganized the U.S. Naval Academy as its superintendent, 1865–69. He became vice admiral in 1866 and admiral in 1870, the second man to hold that rank. (Farragut was the first.)