1846 applied for command of a ship and active service. After much difficulty, he obtained the sloop-of-war “Saratoga,” in February, 1847. He collected a crew, and sailed two days after his assignment, eager to capture the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, which he believed could be done with three vessels; but when he arrived at Vera Cruz the castle had just surrendered to the land forces. Farragut always thought Com. Conner had lost a great opportunity in not attacking it. He says in his journal: “Of all the service I had seen since entering the navy, this cruise was the most mortifying. As I had the ill-will of my commodore” [Matthew C. Perry]. “I was not permitted to participate in any of the expeditions and more honorable duties, but was placed under a reef of rocks off Tuxpan, to blockade that port. When I could bear the imposition no longer, I reported the facts to the navy department, and asked to be relieved from under his command, or from command of the ship. Accordingly, I was ordered home with my vessel. My letters were considered improper by the secretary of the navy.” Com. Perry denied that he had any prejudice against Farragut.
In February, 1848, Farragut's vessel returned home, when he was assigned to the Norfolk navy-yard for two years, and in October, 1850, was ordered to Washington to compile a book of ordnance regulations for the navy, in collaboration with Commander T. A. Dornin and Lieuts. Barron, Harwood, and Fairfax. This work occupied them a year and a half. When it was completed, Farragut says: “Many of the best features were overruled and stricken out, as were also the drawings, which we considered fine illustrations. The book was highly commended by officers of other navies than our own; but where is it now? God only knows! For those who had the power called a new board ten years afterward, and made a few necessary changes to suit the introduction of steam and heavy guns, and the names of the original board were obliterated.” During those eighteen months he attended regularly the lectures at the Smithsonian institution. When he returned to the Norfolk navy-yard as ordnance officer, he gave the officers a weekly lecture on gunnery. Lieut. Percival Drayton was associated with him at this time in a series of experiments at Fort Monroe, to test the various classes of guns used in the navy, and an intimate friendship grew up between the two officers which lasted through their lives.
When the Crimean war began, in 1854, Farragut asked to be sent thither as a professional observer. This request was denied by the navy department; but soon afterward he was sent to establish a navy-yard on the Pacific coast, the site chosen being Mare Island, in the bay of San Francisco. This task occupied him four years. During this time the affair of the vigilance committee took place, and he was appealed to for aid to the state authorities; but he carefully refrained from all interference.
In July, 1858, he returned to the Atlantic coast, and was given command of the “Brooklyn,” a new sloop-of-war, in which he conveyed to Vera Cruz Robert M. McLane, the new U. S. minister to Mexico. The ship was then placed at the disposal of Mr. McLane and took him to various points on the coast, that he might communicate with the American consuls. Farragut was taunted with being at the beck and call of a civilian, and made a characteristic answer: “I can only say that I am always at the service of the country in doing my duty, and would rather be subject to the directions of an intelligent man appointed by the government for a purpose on account of his qualifications, than to be under some old fool who has floated up to his position without the first requisites, the only merit that he possesses being that he had been in the navy all his life without having done anything to recommend him either to the government or to his brother officers.” From Vera Cruz he wrote: “I can't help loving my profession; but it has materially changed since the advent of steam. I took as much pleasure in running into this port the other day in a gale of wind as ever a boy did in any feat of skill. The people seemed astonished. McLane said he would sooner have done it than anything else — except to take a ship.” Governmental affairs in Mexico were very much disturbed at this time, 1859, and Farragut was of great service in protecting American interests there, for which he received a letter of thanks from American merchants in Vera Cruz. He made another trip to Mexico in November, and in December passed up the Mississippi to New Orleans, where he arrived just in time to attend the funeral of his brother William, who was retired as a lieutenant. The intimate acquaintance with the Gulf of Mexico and the lower Mississippi, which Farragut gained by these frequent visits, was found to be of inestimable, value to him two years later.
In the winter of 1860-'1 Farragut was on waiting orders in Norfolk, Va. The one topic of discussion there, as elsewhere throughout the country, was the impending secession of the south and the probability of civil war. If an amicable separation of the country should take place, he would remain with the south, because his relatives were there and his home, so far as he had a home on shore. But he did not see how secession could be attempted without war, and in that event he held that his allegiance was due to the National government, to which he was indebted for his naval education, rank, and employment. He watched with intense interest the efforts to carry Virginia into the Confederacy, and when it was accomplished he declared that “the state had been dragooned out of the Union.” As he expressed his opinions freely, and boldly said that President Lincoln was justified in calling for troops, he was told that a person with such sentiments “could not live in Norfolk.” “Well, then,” said he, “I can live somewhere else,” and that very evening (18 April, 1861) he departed with his wife and son, going first to Baltimore, and finally taking a cottage at Hastings-on-the-Hudson. He was a member of a naval retiring-board in Brooklyn, but had little else to do for nearly a year. One privateer, the “Sumter,” had already been sent out by the Confederates. Farragut, who had a theory as to her probable movements, asked the government to let him go in chase of her with a swift vessel, but the suggestion was not approved.
In December, 1861, he was summoned to Washington, whence he wrote a hurried note to his wife: “Keep your lips closed, and burn my letters, for perfect silence is to be observed the first injunction of the secretary. I am to have a flag in the Gulf, and the rest depends upon myself. Keep calm and silent. I shall sail in three weeks.” For some time a formidable expedition had been in preparation, intended to reduce the defences of New Orleans and capture that place, which was by far the largest city in the south. The expedition included twenty-one schooners, each carrying a large mortar, under command of Commander (now Admiral) David D. Porter. Farragut had no faith in the efficacy of these mortars, but, as a great deal of time and money had been spent in their preparation, he accepted the fleet as he found it. He sailed from Hampton Roads, 2 Feb., 1862, in the
