A series of concise military biographies, each volume includes all of the important details and addresses a central organising theme to help the reader understand which aspects of a subject's character, background, or behaviour contributed to his or her success. These books will serve as a starting point for any novice reader who wishes to pursue a more sophisticated course of study of the subject. "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" With those words, David Glasgow Farragut led a fleet of Union warships into Mobile Bay, where he achieved one of the most celebrated victories in American naval history. What separates the good officer from the great one, writes Robert J. Schneller Jr., is the courage to make difficult decisions in the heat of combat despite personal fear or the awful realization that some men will have to pay in blood. Farragut's personal attributes, such as his sharp intelligence and confidence, and his careful preparations, keen situational awareness, and courage to act boldly at decisive moments produced the Union's most important naval victories and resulted in his appointment as the U.S. Navy's first admiral.
These qualities also made Farragut the greatest naval officer, Union or Confederate, of the Civil War and, indeed, the most out-standing U.S. naval officer of the nineteenth century.
- ISBN10 1574883984
- ISBN13 9781574883985
- Publish Date 30 April 2002
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 June 2010
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Potomac Books Inc
- Imprint Brassey's US
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 128
- Language English