Civil War Delaware

In the years preceding the Civil War, Delaware was essentially divided—as a slave state, it had many ties to the South, but as the first state to ratify the federal Constitution, it was fiercely loyal to the Union. With the outbreak of war, the First State rallied to Lincoln’s call and sent proportionally more troops to fight for the Union than any free state. Yet even as the renowned Du Pont mills provided half of the Union gunpowder, Southern sympathizers transported war materiel to the Confederacy via the Nanticoke River. Author Michael Morgan deftly navigates this complex history. From Wilmington abolitionist Thomas Garrett, who helped 2,700 fugitive slaves flee north, to the prison camp at Fort Delaware that held thousands of captured Confederates and political prisoners, Morgan reveals the remarkable stories of the heroes and scoundrels of Civil War Delaware.