[Illustration:  COMMODORE DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT.]

Being a stranger in that neighborhood, he was regarded with suspicion.  He was fond of taking long walks, and it is said that some of the people suspected that he belonged to a gang of plotters who intended to cut the Croton Aqueduct, but the quiet man was simply awaiting the summons of his country to serve her in any capacity possible.

The call came in the spring of 1861, when he was about threescore years old.  His duty was that of serving on the board appointed by Congress to retire superannuated officers from the active service.  This duty completed, he was appointed to the command of the expedition organized for the capture of New Orleans.  He sailed from Hampton Roads on the 3d of February, 1862, in the flagship Hartford and arrived seventeen days later at Ship Island, the place of rendezvous.  There he set to work to make his arrangements for the great task which was wholly different from any that had ever engaged his attention.  But how well he completed this grand work, he being the real supervisor and superintendent, has been referred to in a previous chapter and is told in every history of our country.

[Illustration:  CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS—­ATTACK ON FORT PHILIP.]

The skill and courage displayed by Farragut in the capture of New Orleans attracted national attention and added greatly to his reputation.  In the latter part of June he ran the batteries of Vicksburg, but notified the Government that though he could go up and down the river as he chose and silence the batteries when he pleased, no substantial good would result unless a land force of ten or twelve thousand men attacked the town from the rear.  It was this plan which brought about the capture of Vicksburg by General Grant and the opening of the Mississippi River.  Farragut, who had been made rear admiral, afforded great aid in taking Port Hudson and cleaning out all rebel fortifications along the Father of Waters.

This immense work having been accomplished, the Government now gave its attention to Mobile, another of the Confederate strongholds in the South.  The campaign arranged was to attack it with a land force under the command of Generals Canby and Granger and a naval force under Farragut.  In January, 1864, he made a reconnaissance of Mobile Bay and informed the Government that if it would supply him with a slight additional force he would attack and capture it at once.  He knew that the defences were being strengthened every day and repeatedly urged that he be furnished with the means of making an immediate assault.  But the ill-advised and disastrous expedition of Banks up the Red River took away the available troops and the appeal of Farragut remained unheeded until the summer was well advanced.