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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Farragut and Du Pont: One Civil War admiral succeeded by taking risks, while the other failed by being afraid to do so

I promised the other day to do a separate item on the article in the Oct. 2014 issue of Journal of Military History about how Admiral David Farragut succeeded by taking risks, while Admiral Samuel Du Pont failed by avoiding risks. The author, James McPherson, concludes that Du Pont’s "tragic flaw, like that of McClellan, ...

via Wikimedia
via Wikimedia
via Wikimedia

I promised the other day to do a separate item on the article in the Oct. 2014 issue of Journal of Military History about how Admiral David Farragut succeeded by taking risks, while Admiral Samuel Du Pont failed by avoiding risks.

I promised the other day to do a separate item on the article in the Oct. 2014 issue of Journal of Military History about how Admiral David Farragut succeeded by taking risks, while Admiral Samuel Du Pont failed by avoiding risks.

The author, James McPherson, concludes that Du Pont’s "tragic flaw, like that of McClellan, was his unwillingness to take large risks, and then to refuse to take responsibility for the failures that stemmed from unwillingness." On the other hand, he concludes, Farragut resembled Grant: "they were willing to take great risks." 

This guy McPherson has a lot of promise. I wonder what else he might have written.

Also, I wanna note that everyone mentioned in this item has a traffic circle or square with his name on it in Washington, D.C., except poor old Grant. Even McPherson.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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