David Glasgow Farragut

Farragut, David Glasgow (1801–70), U.S. admiral and Civil War hero. He captured New Orleans, a Confederate supply center, in 1862 and gained control of the Mississippi River in 1863. In a daring attack on Mobile, Ala., in 1864 he gave the now proverbial command “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

See also: Civil War, U.S.