Delafield

Richard Delafield, soldier and military engineer, was born in New York City in 1798 to John and Ann Hallett Delafield. In 1814 he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point and was graduated four years later at the head of his class. As a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, Delafield served briefly with the American Boundary Commission together with his brother Joseph Delafield to establish the northern line between the U.S. and Canada as laid out by the Treaty of Ghent. During the next twenty-one years, he was in charge of constructing coastal defenses at Hampton Roads, Va., and Plaquemine Bend, La., on the Mississippi River, as well as building fortifications on the banks of the Delaware River and Bay. Many of his plans and drawings for these projects were admired for their accuracy and artistic execution.

In 1838 Delafield was commissioned a major and assigned the post of superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, remaining in the position until 1845 when he was placed in charge of the construction of defenses and improvements of the New York harbor and the Hudson River. Also in 1855 he was appointed chief of the Commission to the Crimea, and his report which was printed in 1860 by Congress was suppressed during the Civil War so that Confederate engineers could not draw upon the excellent information and drawings of fortifications contained in the report. In 1856 he again served as superintendent of the Military Academy, a post he held until 1861. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Delafield worked to organize and equip the New York State volunteers, to supply ordnance stores for the Atlantic and Lake defenses, and to superintend the defenses for the New York harbor, Governors Island, and the fort at Sandy Hook. In 1864 he was made a brigadier-general and chief of engineers of the U.S. Army, and until his retirement in 1866 was in command of the U.S Corps of Engineers, in charge of the Bureau of Engineers of the War Department. During that time, he was brevetted a major-general for his distinguished service during the Civil War.

Delafield was married twice, briefly in 1824 to Helen Summers who died a few months later and again in 1833 to Harriet Baldwin Covington with whom he had eight children, including Albert Delafield.