The following summer the Navy Department placed at his disposal the
dispatch steamer Tallapoosa, which took him and his family to
Portsmouth, New Hampshire; where he became the guest of the late
Rear-Admiral Pennock, then commandant of the Navy Yard at that place and
a connection by marriage of Mrs. Farragut. It was his last sea voyage,
and he appeared to have a presentiment that it was so; for as the ship
drew near the yard he arose from his sick bed at the sound of the salute
being fired in his honor, dressed himself in full uniform, and went on
deck. Looking up with a sad smile at his flag flying from the mast-head,
he said: "It would be well if I died _now_, in harness." Shortly after
his arrival, an old sailor who had charge of the sloop-of-war Dale, then
lying dismantled at the wharf, met there the admiral, who had wandered
on board. He looked about the ship and, as he left her to go ashore,
said: "This is the last time I shall ever tread the deck of a
man-of-war." This prediction proved true. He passed quietly away at the
commandant's house, on the 14th of August, 1870, aged sixty-nine years;
surrounded by his family and loving friends, including many of his old
companions in arms. The body was laid temporarily in Portsmouth, the
naval officers and citizens of the place uniting to pay every respect to
his memory.
In September the Navy Department sent the steam frigate Guerriere to
bring the admiral's body to New York. This ship running aground on
Nantucket Shoal, the remains were transferred to another vessel and so
conveyed to the city. The final and public funeral ceremonies were held
on the 30th of September; the day being observed as one of general
mourning, the city edifices draped, bells tolled, and minute guns fired.
In the procession was General Grant, then President of the United
States, with the members of his Cabinet, many military and naval
officers, ten thousand soldiers, and a large number of societies. By
these the coffin of the admiral was escorted to the railroad station,
whence it was transported to Woodlawn Cemetery, in Westchester County,
where the body now lies.
To his memory the United States Government has erected a colossal bronze
statue in the national capital, in Farragut Square, the work of Miss
Vinnie Ream. A committee of New York citizens have placed a similar
memorial, by Mr. St. Gauden, at the northwest corner of Madison Square
in that city. There is also a mural tablet, with a likeness of the
admiral, in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Incarnation; of which
he was a communicant after taking up his residence in New York.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHARACTER OF ADMIRAL FARRAGUT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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