David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 â February 13, 1891) was a United States Navy admiral and a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the U.S. Navy. Promoted as the second U.S. Navy officer ever to attain the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War.
Commander Porter became Acting Rear Admiral Porter without going through the intermediate ranks of captain and commodore. (He was one of only three US Navy admirals to have been promoted to rear admiral without having first served in the rank of captain. The others being Richard E. Byrd and Ben Moreell.) He was assigned to command the Mississippi Squadron and left Washington for his new command on October 9, 1862, and arrived in Cairo, Illinois, on October 15.
He commanded the mortar fleet at New Orleans and Vicksburg, led the fleets in the Red River Expedition and at the capture of Ft. Fisher.
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