DuPont, Samuel Francis (1803-1865) to E. Jackson
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06453 Author/Creator: DuPont, Samuel Francis (1803-1865) Place Written: near Wilmington, Delaware Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 18 September 1863 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 19.4 x 12.9 cm. Order a Copy
Written by Admiral DuPont to E. Jackson. Thanks Jackson for his letter of 15 September. Letter concerns his removal from office. Believes it was done because of his statement that a naval attack could not take Charleston. Says he has no anger toward the government because they need to be able to select their agents as they desire, but is angry that they give false reasons for his removal. Says his side of the story has not been made public. Says "My offense I presume consisted in saying that 'a purely naval attack' was not the way to take Charleston and that Monitors could not do it, and that troops were necessary."
In April 1863 DuPont was given direct orders from the Navy Department to attack Charleston. He believed the city could not be taken without significant land troop support, but nevertheless attacked with nine ironclads on 7 April 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 DuPont for the highly publicized failure at Charleston. DuPont himself anguished over it and, after one more major engagement in which he sank a Confederate ironclad, was relieved of command on 5 July 1863 at his own request. Though he enlisted the help of 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. DuPont's attempt to garner the support of President Abraham Lincoln was ignored, and he returned home to Delaware.
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