Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

Creation of the Rear Admiral Rank

When
16 July 1862
Where
United States
Part of
David Farragut becomes the U.S. Navy's first rear admiral

Congress created the rank of rear admiral on July 16, 1862, to honor David Farragut's successful assault on New Orleans.

The rank of rear admiral was created by Congress on July 16, 1862, specifically to honor David Farragut's successful assault on the city of New Orleans. This rank had never before been used in the United States Navy, marking a new tier in the naval officer hierarchy.

Sources

  1. David Farragut Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
  2. Rear admiral (United States) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.