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David Farragut (July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He was both the first vice admiral and full admiral of the Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his famous order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

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Farragut was born to Jordi and Elizabeth Farragut at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father was serving as a cavalry officer in the Tennessee militia. Jordi Farragut Mesquida (1755–1817), originally a merchant captain from Minorca when the island was under British rule, had previously joined the American Revolutionary cause. David's birth name was , but it was changed in 1812, following his adoption by future naval Captain David Porter in 1808 (which made him the foster brother of future Civil War Admiral David Dixon Porter).

David Farragut entered the Navy as a midshipman on December 17, 1810. In the War of 1812, when only 12 years old, he was given command of a prize ship taken by USS in Valparaiso Bay, Chile, on March 28, 1814, but was exchanged in April 1815. Through the years that followed, in one assignment after another, he showed the high ability and devotion to duty that would allow him to make a great contribution to the Union victory in the Civil War and to write a famous page in the history of the United States Navy.

, in April 1862 he ran past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip and the Chalmette, Louisiana, batteries to take the city and port of New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 29 that year, a decisive event in the war. Later that year he passed the batteries defending Vicksburg, Mississippi. Port Hudson fell to him July 9, 1863.

On August 5, 1864, Farragut won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Mobile, Alabama, at the time was the Confederacy's last major port open on the Gulf of Mexico. The bay was heavily mined (tethered naval mines were known as at the time). Farragut ordered his fleet to charge the bay. When one ship struck a mine the others began to pull back, but Farragut shouted the order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" The bulk of the fleet succeeded in entering the bay and the heroic quote became famous.

Farragut then triumphed over the opposition of heavy batteries in Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines to defeat the squadron of Admiral Franklin Buchanan.

He planned and executed the capture of New Orleans, one of the largest ports in the south during the Civil War. This was one of the accomplishments that helped the Union during the war.

His country honored its great sailor after New Orleans by creating for him the rank of rear admiral on July 16, 1862, a rank never before used in the U.S. Navy. (Before this time, the American Navy had resisted the rank of admiral, preferring the term "flag officer", to separate it from the traditions of the European navies.) He was promoted to vice admiral on December 21, 1864, and to full admiral on July 25, 1866, after the war.

Admiral Farragut's last active service was in command of the European Squadron, with the screw frigate as his flagship, and he died at the age of 69 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.

"A statue of Farragut, crafted in 1881 from the propeller of his flagship, stands in Farragut Square in downtown Washington, D.C.. The National Park Service interpretive plaque in the foreground prominently quotes his most famous line." A statue of Farragut, crafted in 1881 from the propeller of his flagship, stands in Farragut Square in downtown Washington, D.C.. The National Park Service interpretive plaque in the foreground prominently quotes his most famous line.

His hometown of Campbell's Station was renamed Farragut, Tennessee, in his honor, and sporting teams of the local high school, Farragut High School, are known as "The Admirals." Numerous destroyers have since been named USS in his honor, and he has been depicted on U.S. postage stamps twice; first on the $1 stamp of 1903, then on a $0.32 stamp in 1995. There is also a state park in Idaho named after him. During World War II it was used as a naval base for basic training. Farragut Parkway in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, is named for him. The Admiral Farragut Military Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida is also named after him.