Samuel Francis Du Pont
Samuel Francis Du Pont (born September 27, 1803 , † June 23, 1865 ) was an American naval officer who rose to the rank of rear admiral in the US Navy . He came from the well-known Du Pont family. He was the only family member of his generation with a capitalized D in his name. He served in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War , was director of the United States Naval Academy, and made significant efforts to modernize the U.S. Navy.
Early Years and Careers at Sea
Du Pont was born in Goodstay , the family seat in Bergen Point, now Bayonne , New Jersey . He was the fourth child or the second son of Victor Marie du Pont (1767-1827) and Gabrielle Joséphine de la Fite de Pelleport (1770-1837).
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and Nicole Charlotte Marie Louise Le Dée de Rencourt (1743–1784) had three sons: Victor Marie du Pont de Nemours (1767–1827), Paul François du Pont de Nemours (1769–1770) and the youngest Eleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours . His uncle Eleuthère Irénée du Pont was the founder of DuPont , which began as a gunpowder factory and is now an international chemical company.
Du Pont spent his childhood on his father's estate in Louviers , across from Brandywine Creek, where his uncle owned, including the Eleutherian Mills gunpowder factory , north of Wilmington , Delaware . At the age of nine he attended Mount Airy Academy in Germantown , Pennsylvania . However, his father was unable to finance his education and so he was encouraged to be enlisted in the US Navy . The close family contacts with President Thomas Jefferson secured the promotion to midshipman by President James Madison at the age of twelve and he set sail aboard the USS Franklin , which took him out of Delaware for the first time in December 1815.
Since there were no naval academies at that time, Du Pont learned mathematics and navigation at sea and became an experienced navigator from 1821 onwards during his next assignment on board the USS Constitution . He then served aboard the USS Congress in the West Indies and along the coast of Brazil . Although he was not yet used as an officer, he was promoted to sailing master in 1825 while serving on the USS North Carolina , whose mission was to demonstrate the influence and strength of the Americans in the Mediterranean region . Soon after his promotion to lieutenant in 1826, he was seconded to the USS Porpoise , but returned home for two years after his father died in 1827. He served on the USS Ontario from 1829 . Despite the short time as an officer, Du Pont began to openly criticize many of his superiors, accusing them of incompetence and that they had received their positions only for political reasons.
After his return from the USS Ontario in June 1833 Du Pont married Sophie Madeleine du Pont (1810-1888), his first cousin, the daughter of his uncle Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. Since he never had to keep a logbook, the extensive correspondence with Sophie serves as the central documentation of his operations and observations over the entire course of his career in the Navy. From 1835 to 1838 he was Executive Officer of the USS Constellation and the USS Warren and commanded both together with the USS Grampus in the Gulf of Mexico . From 1838 to 1841 he joined the USS Ohio in the Mediterranean. The following year he was promoted to commander and set sail for China with the USS Perry , but was forced to return home and relinquish command due to a serious illness. He returned to service in 1845 as the commander of the USS Congress , the flagship of Commodore Robert Stockton , and reached California by voyage across the Hawaiian Islands during the outbreak of the Mexican-American War .
Mexican-American War
Du Pont was given command of the USS Cyane in 1846 and quickly demonstrated his skills as a naval battle commander. He either captured or destroyed thirty enemy ships, clearing the Gulf of California . Du Pont transported Major John Charles Frémont's troops to San Diego , where they captured the city. Du Pont then continued his operations along the coast of Baja, including the capture of La Paz and the burning of two enemy gunboats in the port of Guaymas despite heavy fire. He led the main line of ships that took Mazatlán on November 11, 1847 . On February 15, 1848, he launched an amphibious assault on San José del Cabo , which required overcoming three miles (5 km) inland and relieved a besieged battalion despite heavy resistance. In the final months of the war he was given command of the California naval blockade and, after having participated in a few landing maneuvers, was ordered home.
Between the wars
Du Pont served mostly on land for the next decade, and his efforts during that time benefited the modernization of the U.S. Navy. He studied the possibilities of the steam engine and emphasized engineering and math in the curricula he introduced for the newly formed United States Naval Academy . He was promoted to director of the academy, but resigned after four months because he felt the position was more like someone closer to retirement. He was an advocate of a mobile and offensive navy in place of port defenses, which was largely obsolete. He also revised naval rules and regulations. After being appointed to the board of directors of the United States Lighthouse Service , his recommendations to modernize the obsolete system were largely passed by the United States Congress in a lighthouse bill.
In 1853, Du Pont was appointed director general of the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City , commonly considered the first world exhibition in the United States. Despite international praise, the low turnout caused severe guilt in Du Pont and he resigned.
Du Pont was an avid naval reformist when he wrote in support of the Navy's Efficiency Act of 1855. He was appointed to the Naval Efficiency Board and initiated the removal of 201 naval officers. When they spoke fiercely against friends in Congress, Du Pont himself was the subject of fierce criticism, and the subsequent review of the layoffs led to the reinstatement of nearly half of those fired.
Du Pont was promoted to sea captain in 1855 . In 1857 he was given command of the USS Minnesota and appointed William Reed, the US Minister for China , to his post in Beijing . Du Pont's USS Minnesota was one of seventeen warships designed to demonstrate Western strength to China, and after China was unwilling to meet demands for better access to their ports, he witnessed the capture of a Chinese fort on April 18, 1858 on the Peiho River by the French and English. He then sailed to Japan , India and Saudi Arabia and finally returned to Boston in May 1859. That year he played an important role in receiving the Japanese ambassador, whom he accompanied during his three-month visit to Washington , Baltimore and Philadelphia . This trip was a breakthrough that opened Japan to American trade and investment. Subsequently, Du Pont was appointed commander of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1860 . He intended to remain in this post until his retirement, but the outbreak of civil war returned him to active service.
American Civil War
When links with Washington were lost at the outbreak of the Civil War, Du Pont took the initiative by sending a fleet to Chesapeake Bay to protect Union forces landing in Annapolis, Maryland . In June 1861, he was appointed president of a council established to develop a plan for naval operations against the Confederation . He was promoted to commodore while on the USS Wabash as the commandant of the South Atlantic Blockade Squadron. It was launched from Norfolk , Virginia as the largest fleet ever commanded by an American officer. On November 7, Du Pont launched a successful attack on the fortifications at Port Royal Harbor in South Carolina . This victory in Port Royal Sound enabled the Union Naval Forces to secure the waters south of Georgia and the entire east coast of Florida . This created an effective blockade. For his brilliant tactical achievements, Du Pont received awards from the US Congress and was promoted to Rear Admiral on July 16, 1862 .
Towards the end of 1862, Du Pont was the first US naval officer to be given command of ironclad ships . Although he skillfully commanded them in clashes with other ships, their small number of cannons and low rate of fire made them poor service in the attack on Fort McAllister . Du Pont then received direct orders from the Navy Department to launch an attack on the city of Charleston , South Carolina, the location where the first shots of the Civil War fell with the fall of Fort Sumter and the main area where the Union was blocked had been unsuccessful. Although Du Pont believed that Charleston could not be taken ashore without substantial support from troops, he nevertheless attacked on April 7, 1863 with nine ironclad ships. Unable to navigate his ships properly in the congested canals that led to the harbor, they were caught in a violent crossfire and he pulled them back before dark. Five of its nine ironclad ships were put out of action by the failed attack - and another sank as a result.
The failed attack on Charleston caused a sensation and the Secretary of State for the Navy Gideon Welles criticized Du Pont. This tormented himself with his failure and after another large operation in which he sank a Confederate ironclad, he was relieved of command on July 5, 1863 at his own request. Although he obtained the Navy's official report on the incident with the help of Maryland MP Henry Winter Davis , an ultimately inconclusive Congressional investigation turned into a trial of whether Du Pont misused his ships and misdirected his superiors. Du Pont's attempt to win the support of President Abraham Lincoln was ignored and he returned home to Delaware. He went back to Washington, where he was briefly on a council reviewing Navy promotions.
But the events that followed confirmed Du Pont's assessment and capabilities. A later attack by the US Navy on the city failed, although it was started with a considerably larger fleet of armored ships. Charleston was not finally captured until General Sherman's army invaded in 1865.
Death and remembrance
Du Pont died on June 23, 1865 while on a trip to Philadelphia and is buried in the du Ponts family cemetery. The cemetery is located near the Hagley Museum in Greenville , Delaware .
In 1882, 17 years after Du Pont's death, the US Congress finally began to honor his services and ordered a statue of him to be erected on the Pacific Circle in Washington. A bronze sculpture by Du Pont, made by Launt Thompson , was ceremoniously unveiled on December 20, 1884 and the roundabout was renamed Dupont Circle . Present were President Chester Arthur and Delaware Senator Thomas F. Bayard . Although the circle still bears his name, the statue was brought to Wilmington, Delaware by the du Pont family in 1920 and replaced with a fountain designed by Daniel Chester French , which was inaugurated in 1921.
Fort du Pont near Delaware City , Delaware, and the destroyers USS Du Pont DD-152 and DD-941 were all named after him. In addition, a school (PS 31 Samuel F Dupont School) in Greenpoint ( Brooklyn , NY) is named after him.
literature
- James M. Merrill: Du Pont. The Making of to Admiral. A Biography of Samuel Francis Du Pont. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York NY 1986, ISBN 0-396-08855-4 . (English)
- Kevin J. Weddle: Lincoln's Tragic Admiral. The Life of Samuel Francis Du Pont (= A Nation Divided ). University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville VA u. a. 2005, ISBN 0-8139-2332-8 . (English)
Web links
- Entry on archived documents in the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware (English)
- Short biography for The American Civil War by Ronald W. McGranahan from May 2004 (English)
- Explanation and pictures of the monuments of the Dupont Circle , including the original statue on dcmemorials.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ ANB : "Samuel Francis Du Pont"
- ^ Genealogy by GJ de la Fite de Pelleport
- ↑ Thomas C. Reeves: Gentleman Boss. The Life of Chester Alan Arthur . Alfred A. Knopf, New York NY 1975, ISBN 0-394-46095-2 , pp. 413 . (English)
- ^ Dictionary of American Fighting Ships , Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center. (Contains the history of the first and second Du Pont destroyer) (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pont, Samuel Francis Du |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | U.S. Navy Rear Admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 27, 1803 |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 23, 1865 |