Delaware Citizens Who Fought for the South

Delaware Citizens Who Fought for the South. . , This monument sheds light on the facts that citizens here felt so strongly during the Civil War that they left their state, farms, businesses and families to head south to enlist. Delaware men served in units from Virginia to Texas. The journey itself was perilous to evade the blockades of the south. There were many different routes to enlist South but the main one was to get to Seaford and sail down the Nanticoke River and over the Chesapeake Bay to Virginia., Delaware during this time was deeply divided over the question of the secession of the Southern states from the Union. Volunteers from Delaware came from all three counties with the majority originating from Kent and Susses. The men came from all walks of life, doctors and engineers to farmers and sharecroppers., Delaware's geographic position and its North-South split between industrial and agricultural economies reflected the country as a whole., Although there were Delawareans throughout the state that supported the President's position, Northern New Castle County tended to be Heavily pro-union, while many Southern Delawareans sympathized with the Southern states. Prior to the outbreak of war despite being on the fence about whether they supported the Union or the Confederacy, pretty much everyone wanted a peaceful solution, even if it meant allowing southern states to break way from the Union., Those sympathetic to the South's issues included then Governor William Burton, a Sussex County Democrat, and both U.S. Senators from Delaware, Willard Saulsbury Sr, and James Bayard Jr. They were referred to as "peace democrats' because they were opposed to President Lincoln's policy of coercing the Southern states to peacefully secede from the United States., Delaware's commitment to the war from both sides:, More than 13,000 Delawareans fought for the Union including 954 African-American troops., Estimates of the number of Delawareans who had enlisted with Confederate units came from a recap of the war by Union Generals, ranged anywhere upwards from 300 to 3000 men., One estimate showed that 78% of men between the ages of fifteen to forty-five from Delaware had served on the Union side during the war. If the possible 3,000 Delaware men who served with southern units were added the percentage goes to well over an astonishing 80% of Delaware men between these ages had been away at war and had left the burden to their wives and families to run their farms and businesses.