Distinguished for his “gallantry, efficiency,
and skill” as a naval officer in the Mexican
War, Samuel F. DuPont spent the following decade
on shore attempting to improve naval and marine
affairs and serving as a member of the board that
established the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
DuPont was appointed a senior member of the Commission
of Conference to establish naval operations for
the North at the outbreak of the Civil War. He
was then given command of the South Atlantic Blockading
Squadron, the largest fleet ever commanded by
a naval officer up to that time. His capture of
Port Royal, South Carolina, in November 1861 was
the first major Union naval victory of the war
and demonstrated the effectiveness of the navy’s
improved ordnance against shore defenses. The
victory earned DuPont the rank of rear admiral.
In 1863, however, DuPont, leading a fleet of ironclads,
failed to take Charleston and suffered the worst
naval defeat of the war. He asked to be relieved
of his command and was, thus ending rather ignominiously
a forty-five-year career in the navy.
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Daniel Huntington (1816–1906)
Oil on canvas, 1867–1868
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Transfer from the Smithsonian American Art Museum;
bequest of Mrs. May DuPont Saulsbury to the Smithsonian
Institution, 1927
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