Henry Algernon du PONT, Congress, DE (1838-1926)

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.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Johnson, William G. “The Senatorial Career of Henry Algernon du Pont.” Delaware History 13 (April 1969): 234-51.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present