Two Civil War admirals and adopted brothers, flanking a sailing warship on the Navy value of the Army and Navy series.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #792

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: February 18, 1937

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Purple

• Subject: Admirals David G. Farragut and David D. Porter, with the U.S.S. Hartford and U.S.S. Powhatan

• Format: Commemorative single, Army and Navy series

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Black machine postmark of parallel wavy lines across the design. The portraits of Farragut and Porter, the central warship remain clearly readable.

• Obverse: The two oval admiral portraits, the central sailing warship, the ship names, and the star-flanked denomination panel are all sharp and identifiable.

• Reverse: No original gum present, as expected for a used stamp. The paper shows light toning with faint blue and reddish ink offset marks, and no tears or thinning visible.

• Centering / Margins: The design sits comfortably within the frame, with slight upward and leftward shifts.

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides.

HISTORY

The Army and Navy series of 1936 and 1937 honored American military leaders two at a time, and this three-cent Navy value pairs David Farragut and David Dixon Porter, two of the Union's greatest naval commanders of the Civil War, and, in a remarkable twist, foster brothers. Porter's father had taken the young Farragut into his household and raised him, and the two grew up together in a seafaring family before rising to the top of the Navy.

Farragut is the more legendary of the pair. At the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, with his fleet stalled at a field of naval mines then called torpedoes, he is said to have shouted the order that became immortal: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." He drove his ships through and won the battle, and was later made the Navy's first full admiral. Porter served brilliantly on the western rivers, helping open the Mississippi, and became an admiral in his own right.

Issued February 18, 1937, in purple, the stamp names their famous ships, Farragut's flagship U.S.S. Hartford and Porter's U.S.S. Powhatan, beneath a central warship. It honors two brothers by circumstance who both reached the summit of American naval command.

STEVEN SAYS

Here is the great detail: Farragut and Porter were foster brothers, raised in the same seafaring household, and both became legendary Union admirals. Farragut is the "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" man from Mobile Bay. Two brothers who both reached the very top of the Navy, together on one stamp.