The du Ponts And The Civil War
In support of the exhibition An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: The du Ponts and the Civil War at the Hagley Museum and Library, we have produced an online companion exhibition exploring the lives of ten individuals whose names might not be familiar, but whose impact on the story of the du Ponts and the Civil War is significant.
From the soldiers who served under du Pont family members; to the powdermen who worked the DuPont powder yards during the war; to the escaped slave who captured and delivered a confederate ship to Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont in South Carolina, the profiles here tell the story of the everyday heroes who contributed to the Union cause during the American Civil War.
The site is divided into two smaller sites, one titled Robert Smalls: Former Slave and Civil War Hero and the other Soldiers and Powdermen. Click a links on the right to begin.
Other resources made available online as part of the exhibition include the Hagley Civil War Collection, a selection of digitized letters, photographs, and other primary sources from our collections. You can also find out more about the DuPont Company during the 19th century through our DuPont Company on the Brandywine exhibit.