Extra Credit Questions

[AussieMick]

Roger you and Steve have identified the two senior naval people. Admiral Farragut's flagship the Malvern was carrying Lincoln to Richmond. But it struggled in the river and needed help from ... a tugboat named "Glance".

And eventually Lincoln, along with Admiral David D. Porter, had to be rowed upstream in a barge.

This led Lincoln to making one of his anecdotal-jokes to Porter.

I think I'll come to the full answer (even though you or Steve might have got there without any further help).


(from "Remarks on the Acceptance of the Lincoln Prize, David Herbert Donald | Oct 1, 1997)

"the president was visiting Grant's army and insisted on visiting Richmond right after it fell to the Union forces. He and his party started up the James River on the U.S.S. Malvern, Admiral Farragut's flagship, but it could not pass a line of obstructions the Southerners had placed in the river, and he had to transfer to a shallow-draft barge, pulled by the tugboat Glance. When the strong river current forced the Malvern against a bridge, the tugboat was detached to rescue it, and Lincoln was left in the barge, which 12 sailors slowly rowed upstream. The president was amused. “Admiral,” he said to David D. Porter, who was in the party "this brings to my mind a fellow who once came to me to ask for an appointment as minister abroad. Finding he could not get that, he came down to some more modest position. Finally he asked to be made a tide-waiter [a customs collector]. When he saw he could not get that, he asked me for an old pair of trousers."
"It is well to be humble” the president concluded.

Hence we have David Porter, Glance , and an old pair of trousers.