Before
the war Pensacola had been the seat of a well-equipped navy yard with a
good dry-dock, the only naval station of the United States in the Gulf
of Mexico. At the time of the evacuation the buildings in the yard had
been destroyed and the dry-dock injured; but the fine harbor, the depth
of water--twenty-two feet--that could be carried over the bar, and the
nearness of the port to Mobile, the most important center of blockade
running, all combined to make it the headquarters of the fleet for
repairs and supplies. Farragut arrived there on the 20th of August. Just
before leaving New Orleans he received his commission as rear admiral,
dated July 16, 1862. Three other officers were promoted at the same time
to the active list of this grade, which had never before existed in the
United States; but as Farragut was the senior in rank of the four, he
may be said to have been the first officer of the navy to hoist an
admiral's flag.

The admiral remained in Pensacola for three months, superintending from
there the affairs of his squadron. During this period the harbors of
Galveston and of various other smaller ports on the coast of Texas and
Louisiana were occupied by detachments of vessels, as the surest way of
enforcing the blockade. The admiral had early announced that he should
carry on the blockade as far as possible inside; and these successes
enabled him to say in December, 1862, that he now held the whole coast
except Mobile. During his stay in Pensacola he received a visit from his
son, who found him in the best of spirits, all having gone well on the
coast; the only mishap having been the success of a Confederate cruiser,
the Oreto, in running into Mobile. She had availed herself of her close
resemblance to some of the British cruisers in the Gulf to hoist the
British flag; and as visits of these vessels to the blockaded ports were
authorized and not infrequent, the ruse induced the United States ship
that overhauled her to withhold its fire for a few critical moments.
During these the Oreto gained so far on the other that, although struck
three times by heavy projectiles, she received no vital injury and
succeeded in gaining the shelter of the forts.

The period of the admiral's stay in Pensacola was one of the deepest
depression to the Union cause, and his letters bear evidence of the
anxiety which he shared with all his fellow-countrymen in that time of
distress. The reverses of McClellan in the peninsula, fol