William David Porter (10 March 1808-1 May 1864) was a US Navy commodore during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
William David Porter was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1808, the son of David Porter, the brother of David Dixon Porter, and the adoptive brother of David Farragut. He was raised in Chester, Pennsylvania, and he joined the US Navy in 1823 and retired in 1855, returning in 1859 to protect American interests off the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Central America. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, he organized the Western Flotilla on the Mississippi River, and he was wounded at the 1862 Battle of Fort Henry while commanding USS Essex. He later went on to repel a Confederate land attack on Baton Rouge, destroyed CSS Arkansas with an incendiary shell he had designed, bombarded Natchez, Mississippi in September 1862, and duelled the shore batteries of Port Hudson. Porter was then promoted to Commodore and sent to New York City, where he served in various capacities until he died of heart disease in 1864.