April 27, 1864, was shaping up as the worst day in the professional life of Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. The combat core of the Union officer’s powerful Mississippi Squadron idled helplessly under his gaze in the Red River, on the wrong side of shallow water near Alexandria, Louisiana. The army he counted on for mutual support was defeated, in retreat, and verging on panic. Confederate forces, once so easily cowed, now swarmed the riverbanks eager for payback. A river that should have been rising was instead falling. Porter faced one of two impossible choices: surrender his fleet or destroy it. Hanging in the balance was Federal control of the Mississippi River and the career of one of the U.S. Navy’s most storied admirals.
Porter had been a commander when the war began, part of a family with seawater in its blood, along with shame and disgrace. His father, Commodore David Porter, had enjoyed a distinguished U.S. Navy career but then ran afoul of antagonistic government officials and a court of inquiry. Despite a lenient sentence of six months’ suspension of duty, the prideful commodore resigned his commission, remaining bitter and broke until his death. For the young David Dixon, this mistreatment of a naval hero was both a cross to bear and a spur to action. When the Civil War began, the ambitious Porter rose rapidly in rank and responsibilities. By 1864 he was a rear admiral and in charge of the naval force policing the Mississippi River system.
