Franco-Prussian War, Radford relinquished his command August 10, 1870, to Rear Admiral Oliver Glisson. He travelled to Lausanne to retrieve his children believing any battles would be distant. After arrival in Paris, the surrender of the French Army on September 2, 1870, caused the Radford family to flee the advancing Prussian Army. At Havre they negotiated commercial passage to the United States. Radford was listed by the Navy as retired on March 1, 1870. However, from October 1, 1870, through the next two years, he served on several Naval Boards of Inquiry chaired by Rear Admiral Joseph Smith, Rear Admiral Theodorus Bailey and Vice Admiral Stephen Rowan. Marriage and family Radford married Mary "Minnie" Elizabeth Lovell [ – ] in St. Peter's Church, Morristown, New Jersey November 3, 1848. The ceremony was overcast due to the death of brother-in-law Stephen Kearny a few days before. The Radfords resided on Mount Kemble Avenue for almost twenty years in a house previously owned by John Doughty. Children of William and Elizabeth (all born in Morristown, New Jersey except Henry who was born in Washington, D.C.) were: Mary Lovell Radford; William Radford; Sophie Adelaide Radford; Stephen Kearny Radford; George Reginald Radford; Edmund Ironsides Radford; and Henry Carlton Radford. Daughter Sophie became a writer including a play produced on Broadway and her father's biography Old Naval Days. Son George Reginald and grandson William Radford Coyle (from daughter Mary Lovell Radford Coyle's lineage) married sisters. Mary and Jane Dodson respectively were daughters of Weston Dodson, founder of Weston Dodson & Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Coyle served three terms from Pennsylvania as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Granddaughter Mary Lovell Radford (from son Stephen Kearny Radford's lineage), on April 5, 1918 during World War I, launched , a named for her grandfather. Granddaughter Edith Lovell Coyle (from daughter Mary Lovell Radford Coyle's lineage) married François E. Matthes. On May 13, 1942 during World War II, she launched the , a in the United States Navy named for her grandfather. Great-granddaughter (from son Stephen Kearny Radford's lineage) Rosemary Radford Ruether pioneered feminist theology. Radford died on January 8, 1890. He was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Legacy When the Brandywine arrived in France in 1825, Radford purchased a set of dining room chairs which he shipped back to the Clark household in St. Louis, Missouri. The Clark family referred to them