The story of the ten-year-old boy who becomes captain of a ship After his mother’s death, young David Glasgow Farragut is forced to leave home to live with Captain Porter and his wife. During the War of 1812, Captain Porter is posted to the Essex, and he chooses to bring David with him to fight the British Navy. At ten years old, David is the youngest midshipman ever assigned to a warship in the US Navy. On board, Farragut must not only learn about life at sea, he must establish his authority over seamen twice his age. Farragut proves his worth as the Essex first sails the Atlantic and then travels “around the Horn” to the Pacific, where it engages in battle. After taking control of a captured ship near Valparaíso, Chile, Farragut, only twelve years old, is assigned his first position as full captain and given the captain’s sword he has coveted from the start. Told through fictional letters that Farragut wrote to his father from prison after his capture, Take Command, Captain Farragut! gives young readers an extraordinary view into the life of an adventurer who today would be a classmate.

This book tells of the Civil War campaigns of David Farragut. Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, this book examines Farragut's command of the most daring and important assignment of the Civil War: the mission to recapture the vital Southern port of New Orleans. "Damn the torpedoes... Full speed ahead." Admiral David Farragut's bold order at the Battle of Mobile Bay has served as a rallying cry for the United States Navy for a century. Described as "urbane" and "indomitable" by contemporaries, and lionized as an "American Viking" by the Northern press during the Civil War. Farragut was considered gallant, brilliant, and humane by friend and foe alike. Lincoln's Admiral also offers insights into the Battle of Mobile Bay, arguably Farragut's most famous campaign. An expansive and compelling chronicle of Farragut's career, Lincoln's Admiral traces the brilliant decisions and wartime strategy of one of history's greatest military leaders.

Captain Percival Drayton played a central role in four of the key naval engagements of the American Civil War, and as a personal friend and trusted subordinate of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont, Drayton made a vital contribution to the ultimate success of the Union Navy in the struggle to maintain the Union. As the son of a noted Jacksonian Unionist obligated to leave South Carolina for Philadelphia many years before the war, Drayton was the very embodiment of the romantic war between brothers. Captain Drayton was a highly literate and intelligent observer of the world around him and the people in it. And throughout the war, he maintained a constant flow of letters to naval colleagues and friends. His letters provide a captivating insight into his service and into the personalities of many Civil WarÐera figures, and so his lettersÑand his biographyÑstand as a primary record of the war at sea and of the collapse of the slave system on the South Carolina coast.

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Sacagawea, the Shoshoni woman who helped guide Lewis and Clark on their famed expedition, tells her life story When Sacagawea’s son asks her about her life, she isn’t sure where to begin. Does she start with her birth as a Shoshoni? Her kidnapping by an enemy tribe at age eleven? Or her role as the famous guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition? She’s seen and experienced more in her young life than most people ever will. Told from Sacagawea’s point of view, this historical novel shares the ordeals of her youth along with the memory of her long, arduous journey west with Lewis and Clark. She shares her love of nature and explains how her loyalties have changed over time. This story of Sacagawea goes beyond the legend to reveal the flesh-and-blood woman who she really was.