Black Civil War hero honored

Jet, May 10, 2004

BLACK CIVIL WAR HERO HONORED: Robin Moore, the great-great grand-daughter of Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls, speaks at the christening ceremony to launch the MG Robert Smalls logistics support vessel in Moss Point, MS. The MG Robert Smalls is named after a Civil War hero who was born a slave and went on to become a deckhand, and eventual pilot, of a Confederate transport steamer Planter.

One night, in May of 1862, Smalls seized the Confederate ship while everyone was asleep and turned it over to Union sailors in Charleston, SC. A year later he would become captain of his own U.S. Navy ship. Outside of the military, Smalls also served as a South Carolina state legislator and helped pen the state's constitution, and served five terms in Congress during Reconstruction. In his honor, the MG Robert Smalls will be the first Army vessel named for a Civil War hero and the first to bear the name of an African-American.