Samuel Francis du Pont

Samuel Francis du Pont (September 27, 1803 – June 23, 1865) was an officer in the United States Navy who achieved the rank of rear admiral. He served prominently during the Mexican-American War and was a significant participant in the expansion of U.S. involvement with China and Japan in the mid 19th century. His career was marred shortly before his death, however, by his highly publicized defeat at Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War. Du Pont was given the blame, despite the fact that he had merely followed orders that he had himself criticized. It took close to two decades after his death for Congress to finally recognize his service.

Contents

1 Early life and naval career 2 The Mexican War 3 Between the wars 4 The Civil War 5 Legacy

Early life and naval career

Du Pont was born in Bergen Point (now Bayonne), New Jersey, the fourth child and second son to survive of Victor Marie du Pont de Nemours (the son of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours) and Gabrielle Joséphine de la Fite de Pelleport. His uncle was Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, which was started as a gunpowder factory and today is a multinational chemical corporation. Du Pont spent his childhood across the river from his uncle's estate, "Eleutherian Mills", just north of Wilmington, Delaware. He was enrolled in Mt. Airy Academy in Germantown, Pennsylvania, at age 9. However, his father was unable to fund his education due to his failing wool mill, and he was encouraged to instead enlist in the Navy. His family's close connections with Thomas Jefferson helped secure him an appointment as a midshipman by President James Madison at the age of 12, and he first set sail aboard Franklin out of Delaware in December of 1815.

As there was no naval academy at the time, du Pont learned mathematics and navigation at sea, and was an accomplished navigator by the time he took his next assignment aboard Constitution in 1821. He then served aboard Congress in the West Indies and off the coast of Brazil. Though still not yet a commissioned officer, he was promoted to sailing master during his service aboard North Carolina in 1825, which sailed on a mission to dispaly American influence and power in the Mediterranean. Soon after his promotion to lieutenant in 1826, he was ordered aboard Porpoise, returned home for two years after his father's death in 1827, and then served aboard Ontario in 1829. Despite the short period in which he had been a officer by this time, du Pont had begun to openly criticize many of his senior officers, whom he believed were incompetent and had only received their commands through political influence.

After returning from Ontario in June of 1833, du Pont married Sophie Madeleine du Pont, his first cousin as the daughter of Eleuthère Irénée. As he never kept an officer's journal, his voluminous correspondence to Sophie served as the main documentation of his operations and observations throughout the rest of his naval career. From 1835 until 1838, he was the executive officer of Constellation and Warren, commanding both the latter and Grampus in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1838, he joined Ohio in the Mediterreanean until 1841. The following year he was promoted to commander and set sail for China aboard Perry, but was forced to return home and give up his command due to severe illness. He returned to service in 1845 as commander of Congress, reaching California by the time the Mexican War had begun.

The Mexican War

Du Pont was given command of Cyane in 1846 and quickly showed his skill as a naval combat commander, taking or destroying thirty enemy ships and clearing the Gulf of California in the process. Du Pont captured San Diego and La Paz, and burnt two enemy gunboats in the harbor of Guaymas under heavy fire. He led the main line of ships that took Mazatlan on November 11, 1847, and on February 15, 1848, launched an amphibious assault on San Jose that managed to strike three miles inland and relieve a besieged squadron, despite heavy resistance. He was given command of the California naval blockade in the last months of the war, and after taking part in further land maneuvers was ordered home.

Between the wars

Du Pont served most of the next decade on shore assignment, and his efforts during this time are credited with helping to modernize the U.S. Navy. He studied the possibilities of steam power, and emphasized engineering and mathematics in the curriculum that he established for the new United States Naval Academy. He was appointed superintendent of the Academy, but resigned after four months because he believed it was a post more appropriate for someone closer to retirement age. He advocated for a more mobile and offensive Navy, rather than the harbor defense function that much of it was then relegated to, and worked on revising naval rules and regulations. After being appointed to the board of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, his recommendations for upgrading the antequated system were largely adopted by Congress in a lighthouse bill.

In 1853, du Pont was made general superintendent over the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, the first World's Fair in the United States, to be held in New York City. Despite international praise, low attendance caused the venture to go into heavy debt and du Pont resigned.

Du Pont became an enthusiastic supporter of naval reform, writing in support of the 1855 congressional act to "Promote the Efficiency of the Navy." He was appointed to the Naval Efficiency Board and oversaw the removal of 201 naval officers. When those under fire called upon friends in Congress, however, du Pont himself became the subject of heavy criticism, and subsequent review of the dismissal resulted in the reinstatement of nearly half of those removed.

Du Pont was promoted to captain in 1855. In 1857, he was given command of Minnesota and ordered to transport William Reed, the U.S. Minister to China, to his post in Peiping. Du Pont's Minnesota was one of seventeen warships parading Western force in China, and after China failed to satisfy demands for greater access to its ports, he witnessed the capture of Chinese forts on the Peiho River by the French and English on April 28, 1858. He then sailed to Japan, India, and Arabia, finally returning to Boston in May of 1859. He played a major role in the receiving of the Japanese ambassador that year, accompanying him on his three-month visit to Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia; the trip was a breakthrough for opening Japan to American trade and investment. Du Pont was then made commandant of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1860. He expected to retire in this post, but the outbreak of the Civil War returned him to active duty.

The Civil War

When communication was cut off with Washington at the start of the Civil War, du Pont took the initiative of sending a fleet to the Chesapeake Bay to protect the landing of Union troops at Annapolis, Maryland. In June of 1861, he was made president of a board in Washington formed to develop a plan of naval operations against the Confederacy. He was appointed flag officer and commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, leading from Norfolk, Virginia the largest fleet ever commanded by an American officer at that time. On November 7, du Pont led a successful attack on the fortifications at Port Royal harbor in South Carolina. This victory led to the southern waters of Georgia and the entire eastern coast of Florida being secured by Union naval forces and an effective blockade established. Du Pont received accommodations from Congress for his brilliant tactical success, and was appointed rear admiral on July 16, 1862.

Towards the end of 1862, du Pont became the first U.S. naval officer to be assigned command over armored "ironclad" ships. Though he commanded them ably in engagements with other ships, they performed poorly in an attack on Fort McAllister, due to their small number of guns and slow rate of fire. Du Pont was then given direct orders from the Navy Department to launch an attack on Charleston, South Carolina, which was the main area in which the blockade of the Confederacy had been unsuccessful and the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War with the fall of Fort Sumter. Though du Pont believed that Charleston could not be taken without significant land troop support, he attacked nonetheless with nine ironclads on April 7, 1863. Unable to navigate properly in the obstructed channels leading to the harbor, his ships were caught in a blistering crossfire and he withdrew them before nightfall. Five of his nine ironclads were disabled in the failed attack and one more subsequently sank.

The Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, blamed du Pont for the highly publicized failure at Charleston. Du Pont himself anguished over it, and after one more major engagement in which he sank a Confederate ironclad, was relieved of command on July 5 at his own request. Though enlisting the help of Maryland Representative Henry Winter Davis to get his official report of the incident published by the Navy, an ultimately inconclusive congressional investigation into the failure essentially turned into a trial of whether du Pont had misused his ships and misled his superiors. Du Pont's attempt to garner the support of President Lincoln was ignored and he returned home to Delaware. He returned to Washington to serve briefly on a board reviewing naval promotions, and then while on a trip to Philadelphia with his wife, died on June 23, 1865 without being officially exhonerated during his life.

However, subsequent events arguably vindicated du Pont's judgment and capabilities. A subsequent U.S. naval attack on the city failed, despite being launched with a significantly larger fleet of armored ships. Charleston was finally taken only by the invasion of General Sherman's army in 1865.

Legacy

In 1882, 17 years after du Pont's death, Congress finally moved to recognize his service and commissioned a sculpture of him to be placed in Pacific Circle, in Washington, DC. A bronze sculpture of du Pont by Daniel Chester French was dedicated in 1884 and the traffic circle was renamed Dupont Circle. Though the circle still bears his name, the statue was moved to Wilmington, Delaware by the du Pont family in 1920.

The destroyers USS Du Pont DD-152 and DD-941 were also named in his honor.