A slave working at a Charleston shipyard learned the ropes sufficiently to sneak a Confederate ship—the Planter—past Fort Sumter and into Union hands. His exploits thrust him into the national spotlight as a war hero, and eventually he represented South Carolina in the U.S. Congress.
Robert Smalls was a slave who gained his freedom and became the highest-ranking African American officer in naval service during the Civil War. He was born on 5 April 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina, and he and his mother Lydia were owned by Henry McKee. While still a child, Smalls was hired out for a variety of jobs. Eventually, he was employed by John Simmons's shipyard in Charleston and became a ship's rigger. In the course of his work, which included taking ships out for trials and fine-tuning the rigging, he learned basic seamanship and became a skilled navigator of South Carolina coastal waters.
Beginning with the election of Abraham Lincoln, Simmons's shipyard had a brief surge in business, outfitting many cotton boats with guns and readying them for naval service. Among these was the Planter, owned by Captain John Ferguson and chartered by the Confederate government for $125 per day. Built in Charleston in 1860, she could haul 1,000 bales of cotton.
The Planter was 150 feet long, 30 feet in the beam, drew 3 feet, 9 inches, and was powered by two, single-cylinder steam engines, which drove the side paddle wheels independently. Smalls was assigned as wheelsman to the Planter, which was based in Charleston.1 The nine slaves in the crew included Smalls, his brother John, fireman Alfred Gridiron, Jebel Turner, William Morrison, and two others now known only as Sam and Abram. The master was Captain C. J. Relyea. The other officers were a mate named Smith and an engineer. Smalls was paid $16 a month, $15 of which went to Henry McKee.
In early summer 1861, the Planter surveyed harbors along the Rebel coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. She also placed "torpedoes," as mines were then called, in the Edisto and Stono rivers near Charleston. That fall, the Planter served as a transport for naval facility improvements at Port Royal and reinforcement of Forts Beauregard and Walker at the mouth of Port Royal Sound.
The "Yankee Armada," commanded by Flag Officer Samuel F. DuPont in the USS Wabash, anchored off Port Royal on 4 November. DuPont canceled the planned amphibious assault, as heavy weather during the transit from Hampton Roads had cost three ships with their landing boats and 300 embarked Marines. The battalion, under Major John G. Reynolds, no longer a part of the landing force, had been rescued from the sinking transport Governor by the USS Sabine, commanded by Captain Caldwalder Ringgold.
On the morning of 7 November, the Wabash led a column of ships into Port Royal Sound. The Wabash and two cruisers steamed around the "race track" pattern, which became the standard tactic for other battles of the Civil War.2 The ships directed their 11-inch Dahlgren guns, first at Fort Walker and then at Fort Beauregard. Other Union ships and gunboats entered the harbor and, encountering only token resistance from a few Rebel boats, joined the fusillade of the forts. The Confederate forces evacuated the ramparts by early afternoon. Sailors and Marines went ashore quickly and occupied the forts until they could be turned over to Army units. A force of 15,000 troops, commanded by Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman, were brought ashore.3
During the Union barrage, the Planter, along with several other steamers carrying refugees (the last holdouts from the general migration that had begun on 4 November), was evacuated to Charleston. Port Royal became an important base for the Union blockade. The surrounding area, including Beaufort and Hilton Head, became and remained Northern strongholds.
In Charleston, the Planter was the designated flagship for General Roswell S. Ripley, second in command to General Pierre G. T. Beauregard. Like Beauregard, Ripley was a brilliant engineer and was responsible for Charleston's harbor fortifications. In spite of her flagship status, the Planter was employed primarily as a transport for the construction of defensive facilities. The principal defenses included Fort Sumter, Castle Pinckney, and Fort Ripley, on man-made islands in the harbor, Fort Johnson on James Island, Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg on Morris Island, and Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. Several lesser forts of the efficient and effective sandbag and earthwork design had been added around the harbor and along the Stono and Edisto Rivers.
Facing diminishing logistics resources and a requirement to reinforce the main harbor forts, Ripley decided to "shorten" his defenses. Included in this plan were the Edisto and Stono forts. The British had taken Charleston in the Revolutionary War by using those intercoastal rivers to enter the harbor inside the seaward defenses. Diminishing their defense seemed an unlikely decision.
The Planter was engaged in the work of relocating material from the outlying defenses. On 12 May 1862, she was dispatched to Coles Island at the mouth of the Stono, where the crew loaded one 7-inch rifle, four cannon, powder, and other munitions for transport to Fort Ripley.4 The crew, in accordance with a previously established plan, deliberately slowed the loading operation so that the Planter arrived back in Charleston too late for unloading. She was moored at her usual berth at Southern Wharf, and the officers went ashore to a ball at Fort Sumter, leaving the ship in the hands of the slave crew.
The Planter crew carried out orders to fuel the ship and make preparations for getting under way early the next day. At around 0300, 13 May, with Smalls in command, the crew lit off the boilers and got the ship under way. They steamed up the Cooper River, anchored near the passenger steamer Etowan at Atlantic Wharf, and rowed a boat alongside. Families of the Planter's crew were waiting with the Etowan's steward, who had smuggled them aboard hours earlier. As soon as the families and the steward were brought aboard, the Planter began the treacherous passage through obstacles, deceptively misplaced channel markers, and torpedoes of the heavily fortified harbor toward the open sea.
The operation required correct whistle answers to challenges from the forts. Smalls, of course, knew the signals from daily use. The crew was careful to maintain the ship's normal appearance, as passengers stayed in the hold while regular ship's routine was carried out. The crowning touch was Smalls's excellent performance as the captain. He wore Relyea's gold-braided coat and broad-brimmed straw hat. He stood, walked, folded his arms across his chest, and waved at the sentries on the forts, just as he had seen the captain do for months.5
Tension rose with the passing of each of the forts, but Sumter was especially intimidating. Smalls gave proper recognition signals and friendly greetings, but there was no way to disguise the unusual course that the Planter set as she passed Morris Island. In the time it took the Sumter sentries to raise the alarm and pass signals, the Planter was out of range of even the most seaward guns.
The next challenge facing Smalls was to contact the Union naval forces without being mistaken for a blockade runner or a Rebel gunboat. With her Confederate colors replaced by a white bed sheet, the Planter approached the Federal blockade fleet and was surrendered to Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels, captain of the USS Onward. Smalls was taken aboard the USS Augusta, where he told the commodore, Commander Enoch G. Parrott, of the recent pullbacks in the Charleston defenses. Smalls was soon under way in the Planter with one officer and four men from the Augusta, bound for Port Royal. He carried with him a letter from Parrott, urging DuPont to hear Smalls's information about Charleston.
The Planter, flying the Stars and Stripes, entered Port Royal Sound that same evening. Smalls went aboard the Wabash and briefed DuPont on his escape and the changes Ripley was making 50 miles to the north. That same night, DuPont wrote in a report to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that the Planter should be considered a prize of war. That report also praised Smalls's intelligence regarding Stono River defenses.
The story of "The Planter Incident" filled Union newspapers quickly. Smalls also became widely known in the South, as a $4,000 reward was offered for his return. As a "contraband," Smalls was put to work by DuPont, guiding scouting expeditions up the intercoastal waters toward Charleston.6 On 20 May, he directed three gunboats up the Stono to Legareville. The troops who were put ashore occupied the abandoned forts. By early June, 3,000 blue-clad troops had been transported up the Stono and were encamped on James Island, within sight of Charleston and Fort Johnson. The Planter, with Smalls as pilot under a Union Navy officer, was heavily involved in supporting the "James Island Expedition." As commander of the Department of the South, Major General David Hunter was busy urging Washington to provide more troops and boats for the assault on Fort Johnson.7 By mid-June, the Rebels, realizing their errors, had placed obstructions in the river entrances to the harbor and had established new batteries, using guns and troops from the more northerly forts. On 16 June, in violation of Hunter's orders to await reinforcements, Brigadier General Henry W. Benham led a charge on Fort Johnson. The results were 600 Union soldiers killed, James Island evacuated, and Benham facing court martial.8 In spite of the intelligence conveyed by Smalls, the opportunity to surprise the Charleston defenders had been lost. Fort Sumter had great symbolic value and the failure to retake it, after coming so close, was a major blow to Union morale.
Major General George B. McClellan's Virginia campaign had been given priority over the assault on Charleston in the allocation of personnel and other resources. Hunter was further disconcerted, as he had formed a unit of newly freed Blacks—the First Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers—but had been unable to obtain trained officers, equipment, or even pay for the eager soldiers. Having commanded Abraham Lincoln's post-election escort from Illinois and the Frontier Guards at the White House, Hunter knew how Washington worked. He also knew that the question of Blacks in the military was an emotional issue, even among many Northerners.9 It was believed to be pivotal in keeping some border states in the Union. Recognizing a resource in Robert Smalls, Hunter sent him to Washington.
Smalls sailed from Port Royal on 16 August 1862 in the steamer Massachusetts. He carried a letter from Hunter requesting authority and funding to enroll up to 5,000 "able-bodied men from among the contrabands of this department." Hunter also sent Reverend Mansfield French, an Army chaplain who knew Washington.
Smalls and French met with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who deferred the question to the President. During his meeting with Smalls, President Lincoln gave no direct response to Hunter's request. He questioned Smalls at length about his motivation for taking the Planter and about the willingness and abilities of Blacks to become soldiers. After a second meeting with Stanton, Smalls returned to Port Royal with a letter authorizing Hunter his 5,000 Black soldiers. The same communique also authorized "any number of colored volunteers that may be required for the naval service" and declared free all men, along with their families, who entered U.S. service. Within weeks, the "First South" officially was mustered into the U.S. Army as the 33d Colored Troops, commanded by Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson. They saw action in Georgia less than a week later and remained on active duty until February 1866.
As a direct result of Stanton's order, Smalls was placed on the Army's payroll as a pilot at $50 a month, and he, his wife, his children, and his mother were free. In April 1863 Smalls celebrated his 24th birthday and seized his chance to be a part of the first major attack on Charleston. Commander Alexander C. Rhind, who had commanded the Planter, was assigned to the ironclad Keokuk and requested Smalls as his pilot.10 Rear Admiral DuPont, having tried out the concept at Savannah, intended to use the ironclads to penetrate Charleston's elaborate defenses.
Mr. Bampfield is a retired defense-related consultant living in Arlington, Virginia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1960 and served in units of the submarine, surface, and aviation communities. As a chief petty officer in 1972, he was selected to serve as a warrant officer and was commissioned as an avionics limited duty officer in 1976. He retired as a lieutenant in 1981. His interest in Robert Smalls is the result of family history research. In 1876, Smalls's daughter Elizabeth was married in Beaufort to one Samuel J. Bampfield.
1. Although the duties were identical, the title "pilot" was not given to slaves. (back to article)
2. This same tactic was employed by Admiral George Dewey at Cavite in the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. (back to article)
3. Not to be confused with General William T. Sherman, remembered for the Battle of Vicksburg and his "March to the Sea." (back to article)
4. One of these cannon had been mounted in Fort Sumter. It was damaged in the Confederate attack, subsequently repaired, and placed into service. (back to article)
5. ". . . the pilot of the Planter, as he passed Fort Sumter, put on his [Relyea's] regimentals, and walked up and down the deck mimicking the Captain's gait, so that if they should use their glasses at Fort Sumter no suspicion should be excited!" From a letter by Harriet Ware, 19 May 1862. (back to article)
6. The term was first coined by General Benjamin Butler at Hampton, Virginia, when he ordered his officers to stop returning fleeing slaves to their owners and to put the "contrabands" to work for the Union. (back to article)
7. The Department of the South included all of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. General Hunter took command on 31 March 1862. (back to article)
8. Benham was not actually court-martialed. His Brigadier General brevet was withdrawn but restored about six months later. (back to article)
9. Although there were black regiments in the Union Army, the question of taking contrabands into the Army created controversy. Brigadier General Thomas G. Stevenson, 24th Massachusetts, was briefly arrested, by Hunter, when he was reported as having said that he would rather lose the war than use contrabands to win it. (back to article)
10. As a lieutenant, Rhind led embarked troops from the Planter in the destruction of a Rebel encampment at Simmons Bluff on the Wadmelaw River on 21 June 1862. (back to article)
WILLIAM J. CLIPSON, FROM THE NAVAL INSTITUTE/HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THE U.S. NAVY
After Captain John B. Marchand's attack on Secessionville failed in early summer 1862, the U.S. Navy tried a head-on approach toward capturing Charleston. On 7 April 1863, the 24-year-old Smalls was the pilot of the double-turreted USS Keokuk. Because she was the shallowest-draft ship of Rear Admiral Samuel F. DuPont's ironclad force, she also could get closest to Fort Sumter. The Union force damaged the fort, but the Keokuk took more than 90 hits and sank the following morning.
In Charleston, General Ripley had not been idle. Additional underwater and surface obstructions and mines had been placed around the port. Engineers had placed range and aiming markers about the harbor. Each of the 149 9-inch or larger guns had been test-fired and adjusted using the markers. No ship could enter without being shelled.
On the morning of 7 April, DuPont sent his nine ironclads up the ship channel to engage Fort Sumter with close-in aimed fire. The flag was in the New Ironsides. Captain John Rogers in the Weehawken led the column, which included the Passaic, Patapsco, Nahant, and, at the trail, the Keokuk. The Weehawken pushed a minesweeping raft, adding further to the poor maneuverability characteristic of the ironclads. The New Ironsides had to anchor twice to prevent grounding. It was well into the afternoon before the disorganized column came in range of the pre-aimed Rebel guns. The Keokuk, with Smalls on board, was an unusual design, with two armored towers and a rounded deck. Because she had the shallowest draft, she was able to get closest to Sumter's walls and, accordingly, its guns. The Northern fleet fired 139 rounds, which damaged but did not disable Fort Sumter. The Union ships broke off the battle in order to be back over the bar before dark. The Weehawken had taken 53 hits, and the Patapsco had taken 47. The Keokuk was hit more than 90 times but was able to steam out of the harbor. Despite efforts of the crew and rescuers, the Keokuk sank the following morning.
This second unsuccessful attempt on Charleston resulted in DuPont's relief by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, who planned a more conventional siege. Land forces commanded by Brigadier General Quincy A. Gillmore and supported by Dahlgren's fleet were ashore around the harbor by July. Smalls spent the rest of the spring and summer as the chief pilot of Lighthouse Inlet, where Gillmore had established his headquarters on Morris Island. In spite of relentless artillery fire, Charleston held out, and the Confederate colors flew over Fort Sumter for another 22 months. The harbor defenses were never breached by a naval force. Smalls was reassigned to the Planter, which had a new captain, a New Englander named Nickerson. The steamer was kept busy transporting personnel, mail, and material for the Morris Island forces. On the day before Thanksgiving 1863, the Planter was returning to Lighthouse Inlet by way of Folly Island Creek. Near Secessionville, Rebel artillerymen fired on the ship. After a few rounds, Nickerson, believing the situation hopeless, ordered an immediate surrender. Fearing capture by the Confederates more than discipline by the Army, Smalls refused the order. Nickerson retreated to the coal bunker, while Smalls directed return fire and maneuvered the ship out of range of the enemy guns. Damage to the Planter was slight, and Smalls was the only casualty, with powder-burned eyes that did not take him out of action but affected his vision permanently. Instead of the court-martial he expected, Smalls received a letter from Colonel J. J. Ellwell that made him captain of the Planter. His pay was increased to $150 a month.
In May 1864, Smalls steamed the Planter to Philadelphia for a much-needed rework at the naval shipyard there. He arrived on the 13th, exactly two years after he had presented the ship to the Union Navy. Smalls took advantage of the yard period to begin his formal education and hired two tutors. He attracted national press attention again when he left a Philadelphia streetcar and walked some miles back to his ship, rather than comply with the city's law that denied "colored" passengers a seat out of the weather.
Smalls was elected to the Republican National Convention in Baltimore that summer. He was not seated, as South Carolina was still in secession. The convention renominated Lincoln to run against McClellan, who favored slavery and promised an immediate peace with the Rebels. The North, although tired of the war, wanted the South defeated. Rear Admiral David G. Farragut's victory at Mobile and Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's approach to Atlanta were the news items that fueled Lincoln's election victory in 22 of the 25 states in the Union.
Smalls sailed the Planter into Charleston a few days after the Confederate garrison had abandoned the city on 18 February 1865. Piers and warehouses full of cotton were still burning, set on fire by the departing Rebels. The rebuilding effort began immediately.
The course of the war was set by the beginning of April, and the defeat of the Rebels was certain. Richmond, the Confederate capital, was taken on the 3rd, General Robert E. Lee surrendered on the 9th, and Mobile, the only major city left in Rebel hands, fell on the 12th. On 14 April, the fourth anniversary of the surrender of Fort Sumter, General Robert Anderson returned with the same flag that he, as a major and commander of the fort, had then stricken. The flag-raising ceremony triggered a huge celebration. Considering the number of craft in Charleston Harbor, all trying to get close to Fort Sumter, it is not surprising that the Planter was involved in a minor collision. The greatest damage was to the pride of her captain.
The Planter was steaming home to Port Royal late the next day, when Smalls was hailed by a northbound ship's captain, who passed the news that the President was dead. Lincoln had been shot while the celebration in Charleston Harbor was still going on.
In fall 1866, Smalls was given his final assignment as captain of the Planter. He steamed her to Baltimore for decommissioning. She was sold to civilian interests and remained in use until she foundered in 1875. Smalls compared his grief on hearing the news to the loss of a family member.
The end of Smalls's naval service was the beginning of his business and political career. He had used the prize money from the Planter to buy the home of Henry McKee, his former owner, and a store in Beaufort. With his captain's pay and the success of the store, he was able to acquire significant real estate holdings. After the war, he continued to serve in the state militia and in 1877 was promoted to Brigadier General. From that point, he was referred to as "General Smalls."
Between 1868 and 1874, he served in both houses of the South Carolina legislature. He was elected to five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1875 and 1887. His primary effort while in the House and at the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention was to halt the gradual disenfranchisement of Blacks. It was a battle he lost. He was successful, however, in fulfilling his election campaign promise to establish a permanent naval presence at Port Royal. His legislative legacy is the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island.
Smalls served as Customs Collector at Beaufort from 1889 until 1913. A victim of diabetes, he died in his sleep at home on 20 February 1915, and his funeral ranks as the largest in Beaufort's history. A modest monument stands near his grave in the churchyard on Craven Street. His home still stands at 511 Prince Street, and Robert Smalls Middle School educates Beaufort's young people.