David Dixon Porter (8 June 1813 – 13 February 1891) was a US Navy Admiral during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.
Biography[]
David Dixon Porter was born in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1813, and he began his naval service at the age of 10 aboard USS John Adams, which was commanded by his father David Porter; he was the brother of William D. Porter, while David G. Farragut was his adoptive brother. From 1825 to 1828, he served in the Mexican Navy, of which his father was commander-in-chief, and he served in the US Navy after 1829. During the Mexican-American War, he took part in the attack on Veracruz, and, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, he held Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida against the Confederates, although this meant that he could not reinforce Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Porter later commanded a flotilla at the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which secured New Orleans, Louisiana for the Union. He became a Rear Admiral in the Mississippi River Squadron, cooperating with Ulysses S. Grant's army during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863 and with Nathaniel Banks' army during the Red River Campaign of 1864. Late in 1864, he took part in the assaults on Fort Fisher in North Carolina in the final significant naval action of the war. After the war, he became Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and he reformed the academy's curriculum to increase professionalism. When his brother David died, Porter took his position as Admiral, the second Admiral of the US Navy. His naval reforms proved unpopular with a faction of the US Congress which ousted the Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie and eased Porter into semi-retirement. He died in 1891 at the age of 77.
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