An American Civil War Pair to Loyall Farragut; Son of Admiral David Farragut, U.S.S. Hartford

An American Civil War Pair to Loyall Farragut; son of Admiral David Farragut, U.S.S. Hartford, Victor at the Battle of Mobile Bay: Navy Civil War Campaign Medal (bronze, engraved "LOYALL FARRAGUT" and "U.S.S. HARTFORD" on either side of the impressed number "295" on the edge, 33 mm, original ribbon with brooch pinback); and Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) Membership Badge (Gold with red, white and blue enamels, 32 mm, number engraved "950" on the reverse of the suspension loop, original ribbon with brooch pinback). Near extremely fine. Accompanied by copies of the Log from the Steam Sloop Hartford (Commanded by Captain James S. Palmer, confirming that the "Rear Admiral's clerk, Loyal (sic) Farragut was detached from this ship", dated March 25, 1863); a Letter from Loyall Farragut (addressed to Captain N.R. Usher, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Navigation, Washington, D.C., dated May 25, 1909, stating his case and applying for the Navy Civil War Campaign Medal); a Letter from the Address Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department (addressed to Office of the Auditor for the Navy Department, Treasury Department, dated June 3, 1909, requesting records in connection with Farragut's application for the Navy Civil War Campaign Medal); a Letter with Accompanying Envelope from the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) (dated June 27, 1972, as verification of the award); along with assorted research papers.

Footnote: Loyall Farragut was born on October 12, 1844 in Norfolk, Norfolk City, Virginia, the son of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (July 5, 1801-August 14, 1870) and Virginia Dorcas Loyall Farragut (1824-1884), his father having re-married on December 26, 1843, after the death of his first wife Susan Caroline Marchant on December 27, 1840, his father having been noted for his kindly treatment of his wife during her illness. Loyall had one sister, Gertrude MetcalfeFarragut (1849-1896). His famous father was a flag officer in the United States Navy during the Civil War, the first Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral and Admiral in the United States Navy, and is remembered for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay (in which he was victorious) usually paraphrased as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" in U.S. Navy tradition. He appointed his son, Loyall Farragut as his Clerk aboard the Steam Sloop U.S.S. Hartford, effective September 29, 1862. The U.S.S. Hartford was the first ship of the United States Navy named for Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. Hartford served in several prominent campaigns in the American Civil War as the flagship of David Glasgow Farragut, most notably at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. The young Loyall Farragut served as a Clerk for six months, until March 25, 1863, when he was detached. He entered West Point in 1864, graduating in 1868 and served as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army before resigning his commission in 1872. He spent most of the remainder of his career as an executive with the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. In 1909, Loyall Farragut applied and subsequently received the Navy Civil War Campaign Medal for his brief Civil War service. Loyall Farragut published a very full and valuable biography of his famous father in 1878, entailing his entire career, maintaining much of his father's writings and letters. He also documented his father's feelings during the war as evidenced by this entry, dated January 16, 1863: "Father's eyes have given out; so I will finish this letter. He has been very much worried at these things, but tries to bear it like a philosopher. He knows he has done all in his power to avert it, with the vessels at his disposal. If the government had only let him take Mobile when he wished to, the Oreto would never have run out." At one point, President Lincoln dispatched his father, Vice Admiral Farragut, to the James River, to investigate the withdrawal of the Union squadron in the face of an offensive movement by the Confederate flotilla, his son, Loyall Farragut, later writing: "Late in December, 1864, the Richmond papers announced that a movement was on foot which would astonish the world. This turned out to be a scheme for the Confederate iron-clads and gunboats in the James to descend the river, break through the obstructions at Howlett's, destroy the pontoon bridges at Aiken's Landing, and cut off both the Army of the James and the Army of the Potomac (the former being the left bank, and the latter on the right) from their base of supplies at City Point". However, upon Vice Admiral Farragut's arrival on the James the next day, he found that the Confederate thrust had been turned back and the emergency had passed. The gap in the obstructions through which the Southerners had threatened to pass was filled with sunken coal barges, with Loyall Farragut stating "the Confederate opportunity was lost forever". Finding the Union naval force in firm control of the lower river, the Vice Admiral returned to Washington. Loyall Farragut died on October 1, 1916 in Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts. He was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, Bronx County, New York, Plot: Aurora Hill, 14, the same cemetery that his father, Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, was interred in 1870. Naval campaign medals are extremely rare, with this one being issued to the son of the victor at the Battle of Mobile Bay is quite unique.