WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — A Navy Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser formerly named the USS Chancellorsville will be named the USS Robert Smalls.
Robert Smalls a former slave from Beaufort, South Carolina who became an expert sailor and knew the coasts of the Carolinas well.
He was conscripted by the Confederate Army to serve as a pilot on a steamer ship known as The Planter.
Somehow Smalls was able to sail The Planter out of a heavily fortified Charleston harbor with his family and others and military cargo and surrendered it to the US Navy.
The ship became a Union warship.
At the time Congress passed a bill awarding Smalls and his crewmen prize money for The Planter.
After the war he returned to Beaufort and became a politician, winning as a Republican to the SC legislature and the US House of Representatives.
According to Wikipedia, "where he purchased his former master's house at 511 Prince St, which Union tax authorities had seized in 1863 for refusal to pay taxes. Later, the former owner sued to regain the property, but Smalls retained ownership in the court case. "
There was talk in 2017 about having a Robert Smalls statue on the State House grounds.
Smalls died at the age of 75 he died of malaria and diabetes. He is buried in Beaufort.
"The monument to Smalls in this churchyard is inscribed with his 1895 statement to the South Carolina legislature: "My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life." According to Wikipedia.
Currently the USS Smalls is assigned to the Carrier Strike Group Five and is forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Japan.
