Tuesday, May 15, 2012

On the Robert Smalls Thing in Charleston-- Part 1

The next several entries will be about that remarkable, and extremely fortunate event in Charleston Harbor where a slave, Robert Smalls and a group of other slaves were able to commandeer a Confederate ship and take it out to the Union fleet.  This past Sunday marked the 150th anniversary of it.

This was a remarkable accomplishment under any circumstance, but Robert Smalls was the right man at the right place to do it.

From the May 12th Navy Times "Events honor slaves who seized Confederate ship." AP.

Descendants of Robert Smalls were in Charleston this weekend for activities to commemorate his accomplishment.  Just a year later, he was the pilot on a Union ironclad in an attack on Fort Sumter.  After the war, he served in the South Carolina General Assembly and as a U.S. customs inspector.

His descendants spoke at events and a markers were placed where he seized the Planter and where he picked up his family members.  (Taking the ship was one thing, but going elsewhere in the heavily defended harbor to pick up his family and others was really remarkable.)

Sunday, there was a harbor tour retracing the path the Planter took in the harbor and out to the Union fleet.

Remarkable, Nothing Short of Remarkable Accomplishment.  --Old B-R'er

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