The Brandywine Home Front during the Civil War, 1861-1865 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS369 The author has tied his slim volume togedier with such persistent themes as slavery, democracy, and British policy. One can find references to the key personalities who were cast in prominent roles and brought into conflict with each odier to produce die elements from which a turning point was made. George B. McClellan, for example, strides across die stage to play a prominent role both in military and political affairs. The author has done a creditable job of packing some basic historical information and his own incisive comments into seven brief essays. The book contains an adequate bibliography of published sources and secondary literature. Of archival materials, only William E. Gladstone's papers in die British Museum were consulted. The author apparently has derived a great deal of pleasure from interpreting each turning point according to his own interest. Some of his inferences and insights may be hard to prove, but they certainly will give Civil War students something to ponder. The Civil War reader who is used to gauging turning points in terms of tons of grape and canister will find die book unrewarding. WrLLIAM F. ZORNOW Kent State University The Brandywine Home Front during the Civil War, 1861-1865. By Norman B. Wilkinson. (Wilmington: Kaumagraph Company, 1966. Pp.viii, 171. $6.50.) This sprightly written and handsomely published book was originally a number of articles published in Delaware History. Based on die family letters and business records of the Du Ponts, the essays now brought together in diis book constitute much more than an antiquarian's excursion into the minutiae of local history. Wilkinson has succeeded in showing how the Civil War affected the civilian population of this particular border state and the enterprises, both commercial and otherwise, of one of America's most active nineteenth-century families. One does not stay confined to die banks of Brandywine Creek. The Du Ponts were too widely engaged for diat. Lammot du Pont twice journeyed across the Atlantic to secure the saltpeter essential to the manufacture of black powder explosives. His first mission was stymied because of the Trent Affair and the embargo Britain placed on the commodity in retaliation for it. His second attempt met with success. Then diere was the rear admiral in the family, Samuel Francis. His capture of Port Royal brought to him the acclaim of his fellow Delawareans. But frustrated in his attempt to capture Charleston and ill at ease with the new ironclads, Samuel retired to his home at Louviers. And even at home in Delaware the family did not remain untouched by the issues that shook the nation throughout these years. Henry du Pont had been a Bell elector in the 1860 campaign. With the coming of the war, he devoted himself to full support for the preservation of 370CIVIL WAR HISTORY the Union. It was a complicated assignment. Delaware was not distant from the Confederacy. It had its own slave population. And the gunpowder mills diat provided die Union forces with two-fifths of their supplies could not be deemed unessential. Henry du Pont had to cope with a reluctant state governor as well as a skeptical United States senator. The state legislature under Democratic control stood aloof. At one point it refused relief grants to the survivors of Delaware veterans and even disregarded voting its gratitude for die contributions Delaware's soldiers were making on the battlefields. As commander of the Delaware militia, Henry du Pont had to see to it diat camps were established and weapons kept from being distributed to those whose sympathies with the Union cause were open to question. Complaints were raised against the composition of local draft boards diat seemed interested in protecting those hesitant to take up arms for die Union. Battle flags were presented to the city of Wilmington rather dian to the state government. There were no ambiguities as to where die loyalty of the city lay, but die state's was alleged not to be completely wedded to die righteous cause. Copperheadism was a term bandied about in those days with litde effort to give it precise definition. Troops were urged to be hurried home to provide that margin of...