he 1850s, the U.S. Navy had little of a distinguishing nature to do in the years prior to the Civil War. During the Mexican War (1846-48), there was no Mexican navy to speak of; nevertheless, Farragut made a reputation as a courageous and somewhat radical officer, ordering close naval artillery support for landing American troops, which he then joined in the attack. He authored a plan for an amphibious assault on the citadel of Veracruz. Although turned down, the plan earned Farragut the admiring attention of Gideon Welles, who would be Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the sixty-year-old Captain David Farragut was in a quandary. Married to a Southern lady, he had made his home in Norfolk, Virginia. When war broke out, he relocated himself and family to New York, but the Union government was suspicious of his sympathies. Although an experienced sea officer, Farragut was assigned to desk duty on the Navy Retirement Board. He was rescued from obscurity by the manipulations of a family connection with ambitions
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