Delaware in the Civil War...

5fish

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I know everyone knows Delaware's civil war history. It was a backwater during the civil war but it should be at least acknowledge its time in that period. It was a slave state that never had one Confederate regiment or militia ....

Link list of reading material: https://www.coastalpoint.com/opinio...cle_375886f3-01ce-528a-bbb8-2db2a61cdba6.html

On the whole, businessmen and farmers in New Castle County emulated their industrious counterparts north of the border, while those in Kent and Sussex counties moved at a slower pace, in keeping with Southern culture and way of life. Consequently, many Delawareans who served in the military during our four-year cataclysm wore blue, while others chose to head south and don the gray.

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When the war was at its peak in 1863, many thousands of Confederate prisoners of war were garrisoned at Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River near Delaware City. Prison life of these POWs and their Union guards is described in “Unlikely Allies: Fort Delaware's Prison Community in the Civil War” by Dale Fetzer and Bruce Mowday.

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The names of the 2,436 prisoners who did not survive their incarceration are contained in Jocelyn P. Jamison's compilation titled “They Died at Fort Delaware, 1861-1865: Confederate, Union & Civilian.” This listing also includes Union troops who died at this prison while serving as guards, as well as civilians who were detained for alleged crimes against the state.

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Both the First and Second Delaware regiments served on the front lines during much of the Civil War and suffered numerous casualties.


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Torbert, who was born in Georgetown and later settled in Milford, rose to the rank of brevet major-general while serving in both the infantry and cavalry during the Civil War.

Wilson, who rose to the rank of major-general, became an adopted Delawarean when he married a young woman from Wilmington.

Here are some numbers...

Delaware, considering its small population, nevertheless, provided fighting men to the Union cause during the Civil War. The best sources within the State archives indicate that there were 11,236 white soldiers, 94 sailors and marines and a total of 954 black soldiers from the First State. A total of 12,284 Delawareans fought for the Union out of total state population (male and female) of slightly more than 110,000. This number includes all branches of service: artillery, infantry, cavalry, as well as marines and sailors. To the Union Army the state contributed 9 regiments and 4 companies of infantry, 8 companies of cavalry, and 1 company and 1 battery of artillery. As a result of the Civil War, Delaware suffered nearly 1,000 in killed and hundreds more returned home wounded.

Delaware, according to the 1860 U.S. census, had a free population (including blacks) of 110,418 and an additional 1,798 in the bonds of slavery. The government of Delaware never formally abolished slavery; however, a large portion of the state's slave owners voluntarily freed their slaves.

Snip... Politics...

LINK:http://americancivilwarinstitute.bl...ble for being,or militia units were assembled.

Delaware Governor William Burton (January 18, 1859 – January 20, 1863) was a democrat, but he maintained a cautious politcal stance. The aged Burton (October 16, 1789 – August 5, 1866) tried to steer a course down the middle of all the competing interests. Like a majority in the state, he was strongly sympathetic towards the South, and a strong opponent of abolition, but he opposed Delaware’s possible secession.

Although Delaware, a Border State, embraced the Union, it nominally supported President Lincoln. The state was not a Republican stronghold, and in the presidential elections of 1860 and 1864, the state supported the “Peace Platform” offered by the Democrats. In the presidential election of 1860, Delaware voted as follows: (D) John C. Breckinridge (7,339: 45.5%); John Bell (3,888: 24.1%); Abraham Lincoln (3,822: 23.7%); and Stephen Douglas (1,066: 6.6%). The total vote count for Delaware was 16,115, and it heavily favored Breckinridge.

As the war dragged on, the Peace Platform became more appealing to the war-weary masses.

In 1864, with 16,922 total votes cast, the state preferred (D) George McClellan (8,767: 51.8%) over Abraham Lincoln (8,155: 48.2%). In 1864, furthermore, the war-weary states of Kentucky and New Jersey voted for McClellan, and, while New York cast a total of 730,721 votes, Lincoln won the Empire State by a meager 6,749 votes
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Delaware was a slave state during the Civil War (1861-1865), but it remained loyal to the Union and it voted against secession on January 3, 1861. As the governor stated, "Delaware had been the first state to embrace the Union by ratifying the Constitution and would be the last to leave it." While most Delawareans who fought in the war served in the regiments of the state, there were many who served in the Confederate Army in Maryland and Virginia. Delaware is notable for being the only slave state from which no Confederate regiments or militia units were assembled.

Here is a link with more details of Delaware and the civil war: https://archives.delaware.gov/wp-co..._-A-Political-History-Harold-Bell-Hancock.pdf
 
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