About the Author

Kevin J. Weddle is Professor and Director for the Advanced Strategic Art Program, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, at the United States Army War College.

Reviews

"From the age of eleven. Samuel Francis Du Pont served nearly half a century in the U.S. Navy and became one of the nation's first admiral. Yet he will forever be remembered as the man who failed to capture Charleston during the Civil War, a failure for which he was unceremoniously dismissed in the summer of 1863. Kevin Weddle's thoughtful and incisive biography, while not uncritical, places Du Pont in the technological and political context of his time, and exposes the duplicitous role played by Gideon Welles, the Union Navy Secretary who sacrificed Du Pont in order to maintain the public reputation of Union ironclads. This is essential reading for all students of the Civil War naves."