{{Short description|United States Navy admiral}} {{Refimprove|date=May 2010}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox military person | name = Samuel Francis Du Pont | image = Daniel Huntington - Samuel Francis Du Pont - NPG.65.22 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg | caption = ''Samuel Francis Du Pont'' by [[Daniel Huntington (artist)|Daniel Huntington]], 1867–68, oil on canvas, [[National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC|National Portrait Gallery]], Washington, D.C. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1803|9|27}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1865|6|23|1803|9|27}} | burial_label = Place of burial | burial_place = [[Greenville, Delaware|Greenville]], [[Delaware]] | birth_place = [[Bayonne, New Jersey]], U.S. | death_place = [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S. | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | allegiance = {{flag|United States of America|1865}} | branch = {{Flag|United States Navy|1865}}<br />[[Union Navy]] | service_years = 1815–1865 | rank = [[File:USN Rear Admiral rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear admiral]] | unit = | commands = {{USS|Warren|1827|2}}<br />{{USS|Grampus|1821|2}}<br />{{USS|Perry|1843|2}}<br />{{USS|Congress|1841|2}}<br />{{USS|Cyane|1837|2}}<br />{{USS|Minnesota|1855|2}}<br />[[South Atlantic Blockading Squadron]] | battles = [[Mexican–American War]]<br />[[American Civil War]] | awards = | relations = [[Du Pont family]] | other_work = | signature = Signature of Samuel Francis Du Pont (1803–1865).png }} '''Samuel Francis Du Pont''' (September 27, 1803 – June 23, 1865) was a [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] in the [[United States Navy]], and a member of the prominent [[du Pont family]]. In the [[Mexican–American War]], Du Pont captured [[San Diego]], and was made commander of the California naval blockade. Through the 1850s, he promoted engineering studies at the [[United States Naval Academy]], to enable more mobile and aggressive operations. In the [[American Civil War]], he played a major role in making the Union blockade effective, but was controversially blamed for the [[First Battle of Charleston Harbor|failed attack]] on [[Charleston, South Carolina]] in April 1863.
==Early life and naval career== [[File:Samuel Francis du Pont midshipman.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Painting of Du Pont as a midshipman]] Du Pont was born at Goodstay, his family home at [[Bergen Point]] (now [[Bayonne, New Jersey|Bayonne]]), [[New Jersey]], the fourth child and second son of [[Victor Marie du Pont]] and Gabrielle Joséphine de la Fite de Pelleport. His uncle was [[Eleuthère Irénée du Pont]], the founder of [[DuPont|E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company]], which began as a gunpowder factory and today is a multinational chemical corporation. (Samuel was the only member of his generation to use a capital ''D''.)<ref>''ANB'': "Samuel Francis Du Pont"</ref> Du Pont spent his childhood at his father's home, [[Louviers (Wilmington, Delaware)|Louviers]], across the [[Brandywine Creek (Christina River)|Brandywine Creek]] from his uncle's estate and gunpowder factory, Eleutherian Mills, just north of [[Wilmington, Delaware]]. He was enrolled at Mount Airy Academy in [[Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Germantown, Pennsylvania]], at age 9. However, his father was unable to fund his education because of his failing wool mill, and he was encouraged to instead enlist in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]]. His family's close connections with President [[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 the 74-gun [[ship of the line]] {{USS|Franklin|1815|2}} out of [[Delaware]] in December 1815.
As there was no naval academy at the time, Du Pont learned [[mathematics]] and [[navigation]] at sea and became an accomplished navigator by the time he took his next assignment aboard the [[frigate]] {{USS|Constitution||2}} in 1821. He then served aboard the [[frigate]] {{USS|Congress|1799|2}} 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 the 74-gun {{USS|North Carolina|1820|2}} in 1825, which sailed on a mission to display American influence and power in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]]. Soon after his promotion to Lieutenant in 1826, he was ordered aboard the 12-gun [[schooner]] {{USS|Porpoise|1820|2}}, returned home for two years after his father's death in 1827, and then served aboard the 16-gun sloop {{USS|Ontario|1813|2}} in 1829. Despite the short period in which he had been an officer by this time, Du Pont had begun to openly criticize many of his senior officers, who he believed were incompetent and had only received their commands through political influence. [[File:Sophie Madeleine du Pont.jpg|thumb|150px|Sophie Madeleine du Pont, in a photograph by [[Mathew Brady]]]] After returning from the ''Ontario'' in June 1833, Du Pont married Sophie Madeleine du Pont (1810–88), his first cousin as the daughter of his uncle, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. As he never kept an officer's journal, his voluminous correspondence with Sophie serves 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 the frigate {{USS|Constellation|1797|2}} and the sloop {{USS|Warren|1827|2}}, commanding both the latter and the schooner {{USS|Grampus|1821|2}} in the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. In 1838 he joined the ship {{USS|Ohio|1820|2}} in the Mediterranean until 1841. The following year he was promoted to [[commander]] and set sail for China aboard the [[brig]] {{USS|Perry|1843|2}}, but was forced to return home and give up his command because of severe illness. He returned to service in 1845 as commander of the {{USS|Congress|1841|2}}, the flagship of Commodore [[Robert Stockton]], reaching California by way of a cruise of the [[Kingdom of Hawaii|Hawaii]]an Islands by the time the [[Mexican–American War]] had begun.
==Mexican–American War== [[File:USS Cyane.jpg|thumb|left|150px|''USS Cyane Taking Possession of San Diego Old Town July 1846'', by Carlton T. Chapman (detail)]] Du Pont was given command of the sloop {{USS|Cyane|1837|2}} 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 transported Major [[John Fremont]]'s troops to San Diego, where they captured the city. Du Pont then continued operations along the Baja coast, including the capture of [[La Paz, Baja California Sur|La Paz]], and burnt two enemy gunboats in the harbor of [[Guaymas]] under heavy fire. He led the main line of ships that took [[Mazatlán]] on November 11, 1847, and on February 15, 1848, launched an amphibious assault on [[San José del Cabo]] that managed to strike three miles (5 km) 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 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 was an advocate 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 [[United States Lighthouse Service]], his recommendations for upgrading the antiquated system were largely adopted by [[United States Congress|Congress]] in a [[lighthouse]] bill.
In 1853, Du Pont was made general superintendent over what is typically considered the first [[World's Fair]] in the United States—the [[Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations]], 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, Du Pont himself became the subject of heavy criticism, and subsequent review of the dismissals resulted in the reinstatement of nearly half of those removed.
[[File:Lee, du Pont and Porter.jpg|thumb|The Official Escorts to the Japanese Embassy, 1860: Du Pont, center, with [[Sidney Smith Lee]] and [[David Dixon Porter]]]] Du Pont was promoted to [[Captain (naval)|captain]] in 1855. In 1857 he was given command of the [[steam frigate]] {{USS|Minnesota|1855|2}} and ordered to transport William Reed, the U.S. Minister to China, to his post in Beijing. 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 [[Hai He|Peiho River]] by the French and English on April 28, 1858. He then sailed to Japan, India, and [[Saudi Arabia|Arabia]], finally returning to [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] in May 1859. He played a major role in the receiving of the Japanese ambassador that year, accompanying him on his three-month visit to [[Washington, D.C.|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.
He was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1862.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1862;year-max=1862;smode=advanced;startDoc=21|access-date=2021-04-20|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
==Civil War== When communication was cut off with [[Washington, D.C.|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 1861 he was made president of a board in Washington formed to develop a plan of naval operations against the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. He was appointed [[Commodore (United States)|flag officer]] serving aboard the steam frigate {{USS|Wabash|1855|2}} as 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 [[Battle of Port Royal|attack]] on the fortifications at [[Port Royal, South Carolina|Port Royal]] harbor in [[South Carolina]]. This victory enabled Union naval forces to secure the southern waters of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and the entire eastern coast of Florida, and an effective blockade was established. On January 3, 1862, he was promoted to the newly created rank of Flag Officer (equivalent to the rank of Commodore, which would be created in July 1862). Du Pont received commendations from [[Congress of the United States|U.S. Congress]] for his brilliant tactical success, and was appointed [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] on July 16, 1862. [[File:Samuel francis dupont photo.gif|left|thumb|150px|Photograph of Du Pont in 1862 by [[Frederick Gutekunst]]]]
Towards the end of 1862, Du Pont became the first U.S. naval officer to be assigned command over armored "[[Ironclad warship|ironclad]]" ships. Though he commanded them ably in engagements with other ships, they performed poorly in an [[Battle of Fort McAllister (1863)|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 [[United States Department of the Navy|Navy Department]] to launch an attack on [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], South Carolina which was the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War with the fall of [[Fort Sumter]] and the main area in which the Union blockade had been unsuccessful. Though Du Pont believed that Charleston could not be taken without significant land troop support, he nevertheless [[First Battle of Charleston Harbor|attacked]] 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 [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]], [[Gideon Welles]], blamed Du Pont for the highly publicized failure at Charleston. Du Pont himself anguished over it and, despite an engagement in which vessels under his command defeated and captured a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] ironclad, was relieved of command on July 5, 1863, at his own request and was replaced in this Office by Rear Admiral [[John A. Dahlgren]]. Though he enlisted the help of [[Maryland]] [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. 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 [[Abraham Lincoln]] was ignored, and he returned home to Delaware. He returned to Washington to serve briefly on a board reviewing naval promotions.
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 [[William Tecumseh Sherman|General Sherman]]'s army in 1865.
==Death and legacy== [[File:Coat of Arms of Samuel Francis Du Pont.svg|120px|thumb|left|Coat of Arms of Samuel Francis Du Pont]] [[File:Dupont Circle fountain - facing southwest.JPG|thumb|The [[Dupont Circle Fountain]] in [[Dupont Circle]], Washington, D.C.]] Du Pont died on June 23, 1865, while on a trip to [[Philadelphia]], and is buried in the du Pont family cemetery near the [[Hagley Museum and Library|Hagley Museum]] in [[Greenville, Delaware]].
In 1882, 17 years after Du Pont's death, the [[Congress of the United States|U.S. Congress]] finally moved to recognize his service and commissioned a sculpture of him to be placed in Pacific Circle in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. A bronze sculpture of Du Pont by [[Launt Thompson]] was dedicated on December 20, 1884, and the traffic circle was renamed [[Dupont Circle]]. In attendance were U.S. President [[Chester A. Arthur]] and [[List of United States senators from Delaware|Delaware senator]] [[Thomas F. Bayard]].<ref name="reeves413">{{cite book |last=Reeves |first=Thomas C. |title=Gentleman Boss |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1975 |location=NY, NY |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gentlemanbosslif00reev/page/413 413] |isbn=0-394-46095-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/gentlemanbosslif00reev/page/413 }}</ref> Though the circle still bears his name, the statue was moved to [[Rockford Park]] (part of [[Wilmington State Parks]]) in [[Wilmington, Delaware]], by the du Pont family in 1920, and replaced by a [[Dupont Circle Fountain|fountain]] designed by [[Daniel Chester French]], dedicated in 1921.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://72.52.242.20/~washingt/sites/default/files/SP_0304.pdf |title=Scenes from the Past |publisher=washingtonhistory.com |access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref>
[[Louviers (Wilmington, Delaware)|Louviers]] was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1971.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
==Dates of rank== *Midshipman – December 19, 1815 *Lieutenant – April 26, 1826 *Commander – October 28, 1842 *Captain – September 14, 1855 *Flag Officer – January 3, 1862 *Rear Admiral – July 16, 1862 *Died – June 23, 1865
==Namesakes== [[Fort DuPont State Park|Fort du Pont]] near [[Delaware City, Delaware|Delaware City]], Delaware,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.destateparks.com/park/fort-dupont/index.asp |title=Fort DuPont State Park, Delaware City, Delaware|publisher=destateparks.com |access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> and three U.S. Navy ships; the torpedo boat {{USS|Du Pont|TB-7|1}},<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-i.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040301070513/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-i.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 1, 2004 |title=Du Pont (TB-7) |publisher=U.S. Navy |access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> and the [[destroyer]]s {{USS|Du Pont|DD-152|1}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-ii.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040302014446/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-ii.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 2, 2004 |title=Du Pont (DD-152) |publisher=U.S. Navy |access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> and {{USS|Du Pont|DD-941|1}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-iii.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040302145518/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-iii.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 2, 2004 |title=Du Pont (DD-941) |publisher=U.S. Navy |access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> were all named in honor of Samuel Du Pont. Public School 31 in the [[Greenpoint, Brooklyn|Greenpoint neighborhood]] of New York City, is named after him,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/14/K031/default.htm |title=P.S. 031 Samuel F. Dupont |publisher=New York City Department of Education |access-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> as is [[Dupont Circle]] in Washington, D.C. [[Grant Avenue]] in San Francisco, California, at one time was named Dupont Street following the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. While it was renamed after [[Ulysses S. Grant|President Ulysses S. Grant]] in 1906, Grant Avenue is still written and said in Chinese as "Dupont Gai" (都板街, Gai 街 means street).{{Citation needed|date = April 2024}}
==See also== {{Portal|American Civil War}} * [[du Pont family]] * [[Battle of Fort Pulaski]], bombardment. USS ''Wabash'' crew served four of five Parrott Rifle guns.
==References== {{Reflist}} * [http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/WMSS9.htm Background notes for the papers of Samuel Francis du Pont 1806-1865], Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware. * [http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar/dupont.html ''The American Civil War''], Ronald W. McGranahan, 2004–05. * [http://www.bartleby.com/65/du/DuPont-S.html ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition, 2001-05]. * ''Dictionary of American Fighting Ships'', Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center. Includes histories of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20040301070513/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-i.htm first] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20040302014446/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/d6/du_pont-ii.htm second] ''Du Pont'' destroyers.
==Further reading== * ''Lincoln's Tragic Admiral: The Life of Samuel Francis Du Pont'', Kevin J. Weddle. University Press of Virginia, 2005. * ''Du Pont, the Making of an Admiral: A Biography of Samuel Francis Du Pont'', James M. Merrill. Dodd, Mead, 1986. * ''The Tycoon's Ambassadors: Captain DuPont and the Japanese Embassy of 1860,'' Tom Marshall and Sidney Marshall. Green Forest Press, 2015. {{ISBN|978-0-692-38241-7}} * ''Samuel Francis Du Pont: a selection from his Civil War letters,'' edited by [[John Daniel Hayes]]. Three volumes. Ithaca, N.Y., Published for the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library by Cornell University Press, 1969.
==External links== * {{commonscat-inline}} * [http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001621.htm DUPONT, Samuel Francis: Memorial Fountain in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.] * [http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/WMSS_IX.xml Samuel Francis du Pont papers] at [[Hagley Museum and Library]] * [https://www.usna.edu/Library/sca/man-findingaids/MS_002.EAD.xml Samuel Francis Du Pont Naval Papers, 1817-1859 MS 2] held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy
{{American Civil War|Leaders}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pont, Samuel Francis Du}} [[Category:United States Navy rear admirals (upper half)]] [[Category:Union navy admirals]]
[[Category:Sailors from New Jersey]] [[Category:United States Navy personnel of the Mexican–American War]] [[Category:History of the Gulf of California]] [[Category:Du Pont family|Samuel Francis]] [[Category:1803 births]] [[Category:1865 deaths]] [[Category:Dupont Circle]] [[Category:People from Bayonne, New Jersey]] [[Category:People from Greenville, Delaware]] [[Category:People of New Jersey in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]