In further recognition of this “new state of affairs,” according to William S. Dutton’s definitive history of the DuPont company, “Southern agents were recalled, Southern orders canceled, powder in Southern magazines was written off the books.” Representatives were given specific instructions “to sell not a pound of powder to buyers who might ship it surreptitiously into seceding States, which were bidding for powder at almost any price.” All this activity came, of course, several months after Semmes had placed his order with DuPont, and what effect it might have had on that agreement, if any, is unclear.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Civil War Times magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Hardee resigned his U.S. Army commission on January 31 and went on to serve as an outstanding corps commander in the Army of Tennessee. After the war, he became a planter in Selma, Ala., and died in 1873. Semmes eventually took the field as well, serving as a successful brigadier in the Army of Northern Virginia. He was wounded while leading a charge on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg and died eight days later.

Despite their respective successes in the field, Hardee and Semmes’ time in New York may have been their most valuable contribution to the Southern cause. Confederate battlefield victories depended in part on supplies of Northern arms, particularly in the early stages of the war. Northern guns in Southern hands, a phenomenon that resulted from the tireless efforts of men such as Semmes, Hardee and other Southern agents, was an unlikely combination that very nearly destroyed the Union.

This article was written by Gerard A. Patterson and originally published in the October 2007 issue of Civil War Times Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to Civil War Times magazine today!

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to