Title: Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and H.R. Billings Collection

Date/Date Range :   1864 July 30

Extent: .1 linear feet

Abstract:

This collection consists of a letter dated July 30, 1864 from Rear Admiral David Farragut to H.R. Billings that officially granted Billings's request to be detached from the U.S.S. Vincennes.

Call number: MS-2145

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

The Special Collections Library purchased this document in October of 2003.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and H.R. Billings Collection, MS-2140. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder.

David Glasgow Farragut was born in Farragut, Tennessee on July 5, 1801. He joined the U.S. Navy at an early age, beginning his service as a midshipman on December 17, 1810. He received is first command on board the U.S.S. Ferret in 1823, and began commanding his first ship-of-the-line, the U.S.S. Delaware, in 1841. During the Civil War, units under his command participated in taking New Orleans, the blockade of Mobile Bay, and the battle of Mobile Bay. Congress made Farragut, who was by then considered a war hero, an Admiral in July of 1866. Farragut died in January of 1870. For more information regarding Admiral Farragut, please see MS 1887.

Aside from the information present in this letter, no further biographical information was found on H.R. Billings.

This letter was written on July 30, 1864, shortly before the battle of Mobile Bay. This battle was intended to enforce the Union blockade of Mobile and is considered one of the more important battles of the Civil War. Indeed, it was during this battle that Farragut made his famous comment "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!" The document itself is fairly mundane: it communicates H.R. Billings's official detachment from the U.S.S. Vincennes and orders him to report for duty to Farragut off Mobile. C.H. Greene received this letter on July 31, 1864 and reported it on August 02, 1864.

• Mobile Bay (Ala.), Battle of, 1864
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Naval Operations
• United States. Navy -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865