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Senate Years of Service: 1906-1917 Party: Republican
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Eleutherian Mills Historical Library |
du PONT, Henry Algernon, (cousin of Thomas Coleman du Pont),
a Senator from Delaware; born at Eleutherean Mills, New Castle County, Del., July
30, 1838; attended private schools; attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1855;
graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1861; served in the United
States Army until 1875; during the Civil War served in the Union Army, attaining the rank of
lieutenant colonel; awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his handling of the retreat at the
battle of Cedar Creek; was president and general manager of the Wilmington Northern Railroad Co.
1879-1899; retired from active business and engaged in agricultural pursuits; elected on June 13,
1906, as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4,
1905, caused by the failure of the legislature to elect; reelected in 1911 and served from June 13, 1906, until March 3,
1917; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1916; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the
War Department (Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs
(Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Transportation and Sale of Meat Products (Sixty-third
Congress); retired from public life and engaged in literary pursuits; died at Winterthur, near
Wilmington, Del., December 31, 1926; interment in the du Pont Cemetery, Christiana Hundred, New
Castle County, Del.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Johnson, William G. The Senatorial Career of Henry
Algernon du Pont. Delaware History 13 (April 1969): 234-51.
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