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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC02466.03 |
| From Archive Folder | Unassociated Civil War Documents 1863 |
| Title | Rear Admiral Du Pont Samuel Francis Du Pont to U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates regarding appeals made by officers to the Supreme Court and orders from the Navy Department to launch an attack on Charleston, South Carolina |
| Date | 27 February 1863 |
| Author | Du Pont, Samuel Francis (1803-1865) |
| Document Type | Correspondence; Military document |
| Content Description | Written by Rear Admiral Du Pont to U.S. Attorney General Bates. Says he perceives by a return made by the Navy Department to the House of Representatives on prizes that many cases have been appealed to the Supreme Court. Says many officers and himself have a financial interest in the proceedings and that he will ask his friend the Maryland U.S. Representative Henry Winter Davis to be his counsel before that court, if the government is not employing him. Du Pont was given direct orders from the Navy Department to launch an attack on Charleston, South Carolina, the main area in which the Confederate blockade had been unsuccessful, at the beginning of 1863. Though Du Pont believed that Charleston could not be taken without significant land troop support, he nevertheless attacked with nine ironclads on April 7, 1863. Unable to navigate properly in the obstructed channels leading to the harbor, his ships caught in a blistering crossfire, and the 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, 1863 at his own request. |
| Subjects | Civil War Military History Union Forces Union General Muster Rolls and Returns Congress Government and Civics Supreme Court Privateering Finance Judiciary Law Ironclad Blockade Confederate States of America Navy |
| Place written | Port Royal, South Carolina |
| Theme | The American Civil War; Naval & Maritime; Law |
| Sub-collection | Papers and Images of the American Civil War |
| Additional Information | Du Pont was given direct orders from the Navy Department to launch an attack on Charleston, South Carolina, the main area in which the Confederate blockade had been unsuccessful, at the beginning of 1864. Though Du Pont believed that Charleston could not be taken without significant land troop support, he nevertheless 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 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, 1863 at his own request. Though he enlisted the help of Maryland 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 General Sherman's army in 1865. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945 |
| Civil War: Theater of War | Lower Seaboard Theater and Gulf Approach |