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When Governor William Burton ran for governor of Delaware in 1858, he most definitely was not expecting to become a war governor in the early months of the Civil War. Due to Delaware being a border state in the war, he decided the best course of action was to be as neutral as possible. If he had openly picked between the Union and Confederate, those siding with the other side would become upset and chaos would break out in the state. However, since Delaware was near Pennsylvania and Maryland, Burton came to the conclusion that seceding would put his state in danger. Thus, he made the decision not to secede. He was so dedicated to protecting his state that even when a Confederate delegation traveled to Delaware to sway the General Assembly towards secession, Burton quickly turned the man away. With that, this was his final announcement that despite being a slave state, Delaware would remain firmly in the Union. Burton soon after appointed Henry A. du Pont (president of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company) in charge of the state militia. When the War Department later asked for regiments from Delaware, Burton refused to hand over the militia. However, he did agree to encourage enlistment. Due to William Burton’s efforts, Delaware was able to provide the largest number of soldiers relative to its population of any state, contribute over half of the gunpowder used in the war, and fight for the Union in it's time of need.

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Shortly after the War of 1812, Pea Patch Island–located on the Delaware River–became a building site for Fort Delaware. The original fort was known to have “marshy ground and foundation issues”, so it was torn down in 1833 and later rebuilt in 1848. By 1859, Fort Delaware was the largest of its kind in the United States. The fort probably would have stayed this way if the Civil War never happened. In 1862, Fort Delaware was turned into a prison for the sake of the Civil War. By the end of the war, this prison held 33,565 captured confederates. The prison became overcrowded quickly, and in return the living conditions quickly decreased until they were just barely tolerable. Wooden barracks resembling sheds began to collect outside, but the soggy ground caused many of them to sink. Even when conditions grew less and less tolerable as time went on, the number of prisoners continued to increase. In just a year, Fort Delaware held 11,000 prisoners. By the end of the war, more than 2,400 prisoners had died at Fort Delaware. One prisoner even commented that "the chances of dying on Pea Patch Island were greater than dying on the battlefield." Eventually, rumor spread that out of all the Civil War prisons, Fort Delaware was one of the worst. Colonel William Hoffman tried to argue that the prisoners were adequately cared for, but the surgeon general discovered otherwise.

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No battles took place in Delaware during the Civil War, so this state was a lot less directly involved in comparison to some others. While Delaware did play a part in the Civil War, most of it was contributions such as gunpowder and soldiers. Delaware helped the Union claim victory throughout the war, but it was more behind the scenes and through indirect involvement. In fact, some of Delaware's contributions were quite surprising.

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Even though no battles were fought in Delaware, great contributions came from this state. For example, Henry A. du Pont, who was in charge of the Delaware state militia and the president of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, made sure to supply the Union with all the company’s produced gunpowder. In the end, he ended up supplying over half the gunpowder used by Union armies. Adding on to this, when the War Department requested regiments from Delaware, Governor Burton refused to hand over the state militia. However, he did encourage enlistment. Thus, Delaware provided the largest number of soldiers relative to the size of their population out of every state in the Union.

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A drawing of Fort Delaware during the Civil War

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The 2nd Infantry Regiment–also known as the 'Crazy Delawares'–was formed on May 21, 1861, after President Lincoln made his second call for troops and his first call for three-year regiments. This unit was made up of 838 men, thirty-three of them being officers. The 2nd Infantry Regiment fought in all major campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. Three years later, after countless devastating losses, the regiment began to disband in July of 1864. Strangely, there are no records explaining why the Regiment was named “The Crazy Delawares”. The most likely known reason is that most of the men in this regiment were not from Delaware.

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Near the end of the war, the states in the U.S. had to decide whether they would support or reject the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. If this amendment was passed, the practice of slavery would be abolished throughout the nation. Even though Delaware had sided with the Union during the war, there were still those in the state who enjoyed the privileges of slavery. So, on February 18th, 1865, the Delaware legislature rejected the 13th Amendment. The state later ended up looking a bit foolish when other states ratified the amendment.