A 9” long coin silver serving spoon descended from the Admiral David Glasgow Farragut through his son, Loyall Farragut, bearing the Admiral’s initials “DGF” in script on the handle. Excellent condition, showing just slight muting of the color and some thin tarnish.

Farragut, born in Tennessee in 1801, was a Unionist by sentiment and during the war captured New Orleans after getting his ships past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, helped gain control of the Mississippi, and closed the last remaining Confederate port on the Gulf in the Battle of Mobile Bay. He was given the newly created rank of Rear Admiral in July 1862, Vice Admiral in December 1864, making him senior officer in the US Navy, and full Admiral in 1866, the first U.S. Navy officer to hold that rank. He is best known, of course, for his aggressive attack at Mobile Bay, shouting "Damn the torpedoes. Four bells, Captain Drayton, go ahead. Jouett, full speed," shortened in popular lore to the more succinct, “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!” He was also famous for climbing the rigging of his flagship, the USS Hartford, to get above the smoke of battle for a better view and issuing orders from that post in the midst of the battle.

The spoon was made by Charles Pierce about 1830 and has a provenance from the estate of Farragut’s son, Loyall Farragut (1844-1918) to a Neil Josephson, said to have taken place ca. 1930, by whom it was sold at auction in 1997, passing into the Farragut collection of Paul DeHaan. It has been framed with a carte-de-visite of Farragut against green fabric, with the frame measuring 14-inches by 18-inches.

A very nice piece associated with one of the most famous figures of the war and often considered the navy’s counterpart to Grant and Sherman. [jp][ph:L]

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