Initially the city’s whites simply could not believe that anyone could have taken the steamer from the harbor, let alone that an enslaved crew had done so. “The news at first was not credited,” reported the Charleston Daily Courier, as rumors of what had happened swirled throughout the city. “It was not until, by the use of glasses, [the Planter] was discovered, lying between the federal frigates, that all doubt on the subject was dispelled.”7
John Ferguson, the owner of the Planter, must have been furious when he heard what had happened, particularly when he realized that the white officers had not been on board. The Confederacy would probably reimburse Ferguson for the value of the steamer, but he would no longer receive the handsome leasing fees he had charged.8
Equally angry that the ship had been taken was Gen. Roswell Ripley, commander of the Second Military District of South Carolina. Ripley’s aide-de-camp had the unpleasant task that morning of reporting to the general, who was known for his outbursts, that slaves had taken his dispatch boat. He also had to tell Ripley that the guard in the neighborhood of the wharf had been questioned and reported seeing two white men and a white woman board the vessel at about eight o’clock in the evening. The guard had noticed the visitors when they arrived, but he did not see them leave and had not thought to investigate further. The trio, the guard surmised, had been on board with the enslaved crew when the vessel left the harbor.9 While the guard’s report was completely inaccurate, it highlighted the Confederacy’s lax security and the absence of the Planter’s white officers.
The rumor that whites had helped orchestrate the escape quickly spread and seemed to make it easier for many in Charleston to believe what had happened. One Confederate soldier wrote his mother, “The affair of the steamer Planter seems to be creating some excitement … I scarcely think that negroes devised that scheme. Some white person must be at the bottom of it.”10
In addition to being indignant, Ripley must also have been mortified. A group of enslaved men had taken his personal barge a few weeks before, and now another group had taken a steamer used as his dispatch boat and moored next to his headquarters.11 He also must have been greatly concerned that Smalls and the other men on the Planter knew a lot about Charleston’s defenses, including that the Confederates had abandoned Cole’s Island (the location from which they had been ordered to remove Confederate guns the day before they took the steamer). Their work had made them privy to lots of information that the Union would find helpful. The problem was not that the Confederates had trusted the men, but that the Confederates relied on them and never anticipated they could escape.
Ripley had no choice but to report the disaster to his superior officer, Maj. Gen. John C. Pemberton. Forty-eight-year-old Pemberton was the commander of the Confederate Department of South Carolina and Georgia; he had recently replaced Gen. Robert E. Lee, under whom he had served. Like Ripley, Pemberton was a Confederate officer who was born in the North and had married a Southerner. Despite their shared background, Ripley and Pemberton did not get along. Both were known for being abrasive. Pemberton was also blunt and aloof and had not endeared himself to many in Charleston, some of whom had made their feelings known to Lee.12
When Smalls seized the Planter, Ripley already had been angry with Pemberton because he had ordered the abandonment of Cole’s Island. Ripley considered the defenses at Cole’s Island essential to protecting Charleston and thought Pemberton had made an inexcusable mistake. And now Pemberton’s decision had led to the seizing of cannon that both sides desperately needed. Had Pemberton not ordered troops to leave Cole’s Island, Smalls would not have been moving the valuable guns, and they would still be in the possession of the Confederacy.
Once Pemberton was told, he, too, had to report what had happened to his superior Lee, who was now in Richmond serving as a military adviser to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Lee’s reply was restrained yet stern. He wrote that he hoped action would be taken to prevent a recurrence of such an event and that anyone who had helped the crew take the steamer or had not tried to stop them would be punished.13
Ripley quickly announced Special Field Orders, No. 35: “No steam boat, small boat, or vessel of any description whatever, will be allowed to pass Fort Sumter, by day or night, without a report in person of the Captain thereof at said fort.”14 He would never let such an embarrassment happen again.
* * *
While the Confederates were scrambling to learn what had happened on the morning of May 13, Smalls and the rest of his party were enjoying their moment of triumph aboard the Onward. But their stay with the blockading fleet was brief. Later in the afternoon Nickels turned the group over to the senior officer, Cdr. Enoch Parrott of the USS Augusta. Parrott arranged for a Union crew to take the group and the Planter to the Union squadron at Port Royal.
With a Navy crew at the helm, the Planter steamed about sixty miles south before reaching Cmdre. Samuel Francis Du Pont’s flagship, the Wabash, a massive steam screw frigate anchored off Hilton Head Island.15
* * *
Du Pont had been stationed in the area since his heralded victory at Port Royal, which would earn him the rank of rear admiral in July 1862. In addition to his military responsibilities, Du Pont faced the unforeseen problem of what to do with the ten thousand African Americans left behind after the whites unexpectedly fled the Sea Islands. They needed food, clothing, housing, and medical attention, but no plan was in place for providing these necessities. Even the food stores on the plantations were dwindling quickly as the Army used them to feed its own men, leaving little for the former slaves to eat. The military would have to find a solution quickly.
Since his arrival Du Pont had seen firsthand the toll slavery had taken on the former slaves. He had been raised in the border state of Delaware, which allowed slavery, but neither he nor his family had ever owned slaves. He had always been morally opposed to the peculiar institution, as it was called, but he, like many others, also believed the Constitution allowed for it. Until he arrived in Port Royal, he had also thought that enslaved people were, for the most part, treated humanely. His recent experiences had quickly altered that view. “My ideas have undergone great change as to the condition of the slaves since I came here and have been on the plantations,” he wrote to his wife a few weeks after arriving. “But God forgive me—I have seen nothing that has disgusted me more than the wretched physical wants of these poor people, who earn all the gold spent by their masters at Saratoga and in Europe. No wonder they stand shooting down rather than go back with their owners.”16 By the time Smalls took the Planter, Du Pont had seen the scars of slavery and was well versed in its realities.
* * *
Late on the night of May 13, the Planter neared Du Pont’s flagship. When the Wabash’s officer on deck could not immediately identify the vessel, he feared it was a Confederate ram bent on attack. After a few moments of excitement and concern, but before disaster could strike, the crew on the Planter was able to communicate that the vessel was under Union control.
The Planter was allowed to approach the Wabash, and the acting master of the Planter soon came aboard and told Du Pont how Smalls had taken the Confederate vessel. The acting master also turned over Cdr. Enoch Parrott’s report, which said the “very intelligent contraband who was in charge will give you the information which he has brought off.”17 Du Pont was intrigued and called for “the hero, Robert.”
Just hours after escaping slavery, Smalls was meeting with the man in charge of the entire South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and telling his story. He could hardly have imagined that this would be one of the outcomes of his plan; it was but the first of many surprises.
Du Pont, who towered over Smalls, found him to be a “pleasant-looking darky, not black, neither light, extreme amount of wooly hair, neatly trimmed, fine teeth; a clean and nice linen check coat with a very fine linen shirt having a handsome ruffle on the breast, possibly part of the wardrobe of the Navy officer who commanded the boat, but fitting hi
m very well if they were.”
Du Pont was also impressed with the Planter and wrote that it was “a fine boat, can carry seven hundred bales of cotton, has a fine engine, and draws but little water and will be of the greatest use to us—so that in herself she is a valuable acquisition, quite valuable to the squadron.”
As the two men talked, Smalls told Du Pont how he had commandeered the vessel, and he shared precious military intelligence with him. Smalls revealed that because the battery at Cole’s Island, which defended the Stono River, had been abandoned, James Island was open for invasion. This was critical information. If Union troops could take James Island, they could attack Fort Johnson. If successful, they would control the inner harbor. Smalls also told Du Pont that the Confederates were building Fort Ripley in Charleston Harbor and that many Confederate troops had been sent to Tennessee and Virginia, leaving just a few thousand behind. Smalls even described the scarce provisions in Charleston and told of the recent declaration of martial law. In response to this vital information, Du Pont told Smalls he would “take care of him and his people, that he was a hero.” Du Pont found the information “thorough and complete as to the whole defenses of Charleston.”
Before they parted, Du Pont could not help but ask Smalls about Charleston’s reaction to the taking of General Ripley’s barge weeks earlier by the group of fifteen slaves. Du Pont recognized how embarrassing the disappearance of the barge must have been for the Confederates. Smalls agreed and showed his sense of humor. He replied, “They made much to-do about [the barge] and talked a great deal, ordered sharper lookouts and more pickets. I think they had more to say this morning about me, though, when they find the steamer gone.”18
Du Pont was so impressed with Smalls that when he sent a dispatch about the Planter to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles the following day, he wrote, “This man, Robert Smalls, is superior to any who has yet to come into the lines, intelligent as many of them have been. His information has been most interesting, and portions of it of the utmost importance. I shall continue to employ Robert as a pilot on board the Planter for inland waters.”19 The chance to pilot the Planter for the Union Navy was a tremendous honor for Smalls and one he would gladly accept.
Du Pont also wanted Smalls and the rest of the party to benefit financially for what they had done. He closed his letter to Welles by stating that if the government considered the Planter a prize, Smalls and the others should be given a claim. The Navy’s tradition of awarding prize money was meant to encourage sailors to capture vessels rather than destroy them. If a prize court determined that a ship had been seized fairly, it would order the vessel appraised or sold at auction to private bidders. If sold, half the final bid went to the Navy, while the other half was divided among the crew according to a formula based on their rankings. While officers often made significant money from these captures, the regular crew rarely received much.20 Since Smalls and the others on board were not Navy personnel when they took the vessel, Du Pont was not sure they were eligible to receive a prize. If they were, he wanted them to receive their fair share. He had seen for himself at Port Royal just how much injustice the enslaved had already endured.21
* * *
Smalls was right in thinking that the Confederates would have more to say about him than they did of the men who had taken Ripley’s barge. Smalls’ actions were cursed around the city and throughout the South.
A young Englishman visiting Charleston wrote,
Nothing has so much exasperated the Charlestonians as the daring feat of Robert Smalls, the negro slave, who so boldly and gallantly took possession of the steamer Planter, and proceeded with her past fort and battery, and finally delivered her to Uncle Sam’s gunboats. There was doubt and speculation, and finally rage and unmitigated spleen, predominating that day throughout the Palmetto City, when the Planter was missed from her wharf.22
Much of the Confederates’ wrath also seemed to fall on the three white officers who were not on board when the steamer was taken. The officers had directly violated orders by leaving the Planter that night, and a massive public outcry called for holding them accountable for the damage and embarrassment they had caused.
Ripley led the way. He wrote to the assistant adjutant general of Charleston to ask that charges be placed against the white officers immediately. “The mischief has occurred from the negligence of the captain and officers of the boat and the disobedience of orders,” he wrote. “I shall prefer charges against them at an early day and lay them before the general commanding the department.”23
The Charleston Mercury agreed wholeheartedly. The officers, the paper argued, should be disciplined. The headline on its May 14 story about the abduction of the steamer was “Disgusting Treachery and Negligence.” The paper said,
The result of this negligence may be only the loss of the guns and of the boat, desirable for transportation. But things of this kind are sometimes of incalculable injury. The lives and property of this whole community are at stake, and might be [jeopardized] by events apparently as trifling as this. It is, therefore, due to the Service and to the Cause, that this breach of discipline, however innocent in intention on the part of the officers, should be dealt with as it deserves. Without strict discipline, no military operations can succeed.
The Charleston Daily Courier also fervently called for the officers to be disciplined. It wrote, “We are informed that this shameful proceeding is due wholly to the criminal absence of the Master, Mate, and Engineer from their posts.”24
The fury extended beyond Charleston. A correspondent for the Southern Guardian in the state capital, Columbia, wanted even more drastic measures taken. He wanted the men hanged.25
The three officers, Charles J. Relyea, Samuel Smith Hancock, and Samuel Z. Pitcher, were arrested the day after the Planter was taken and were likely taken to the towering and ominous Charleston District Jail, where they were held until their trial.26 The four-story jail, which was next door to the infamous Work House, held felons, deserters, and occasional prisoners of war. Since the failed Denmark Vesey slave revolt in 1822, Charleston authorities had required visiting black sailors to be held at the jail until their ships left the port to prevent them from encouraging a slave rebellion.27
The frightened officers and their prominent Charleston lawyers, James Simons and Nelson Mitchell, did their best to pacify the animosity and begged for leniency. An unsigned notice in the Charleston Mercury, likely written by the lawyers, said the officers could not offer any excuses for their acts. They then offered several excuses, including that the officers had worked hard all day and into the night, had been ready to continue their work the next morning, and had wanted only to spend some time with their families. The notice asked for “some little good feeling from a people whose kindness of heart has already overlooked several cases of like nature on the part of some in authority.” It was no doubt referring in part to the disappearance of Ripley’s barge.
After bringing up the barge affair, the notice placed blame for the commandeering of the steamer on the authorities, saying they should have appointed extra security after these other incidents. The posting did not stop there. It continued, saying of the officers:
Humble men as they are, they yield to none in devotion to the interests of the State and the Confederacy, and, while they shall bow with becoming respect to whatever judgment may be passed upon them, they hope that the justice meted out to them may be seasoned with a little of that gentleness which has been extended with bountiful hands to others who are chargeable with several similar cases of carelessness.28
The notice had little effect. A little more than a week after Smalls seized the Planter, the three officers were court-martialed at the Charleston headquarters of the Department of South Carolina and Georgia. Each was charged with two counts: “disobedience of orders,” for disregarding General Orders, No. 5 and leaving the steamer without permission, and “neglect of duty,” for allowing the Planter to be taken.
Their lawyers argued
that because Relyea and Hancock were not enlisted in the Confederacy, they were not subject to “the rules and articles of war” or the jurisdiction of a court-martial and were not guilty.
Despite the lawyers’ efforts, Relyea and Hancock were found guilty. But the punishments were not as harsh as some had hoped. As contractors, the men were subject to a court-martial only because martial law was in effect in Charleston.29 As captain of the Planter, Relyea was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and fined $500. If he failed to pay before his three-month sentence was over, he would be imprisoned an additional two months. Hancock was sentenced to one month and fined $100. Pitcher fared far better than the other two men—the charges against him were dropped entirely.30
Displeased with the verdicts against Relyea and Hancock, their lawyers brought the case before Pemberton, the commander of the Confederate Department of South Carolina and Georgia. He, of course, was familiar with the taking of the Planter, as General Ripley had informed him about it, and Pemberton in turn had had to report it to Lee in Richmond.
To the astonishment of many Charlestonians, Pemberton disagreed with the court-martial and overturned its findings in regard to Relyea and Hancock. Pemberton believed that none of Relyea’s or Hancock’s superiors had properly communicated the orders about remaining on board the ship. In fact, he directly blamed Ferguson, the owner of the Planter, saying that he had “been entirely indifferent as to the deportment of his subordinates in that particular” and that he, Pemberton, did not see how the public would benefit from the officers’ punishment. That the men were not members of the military must have influenced his decision as well. With his findings announced, the men were freed.31
Pemberton’s decision only compounded the city’s dislike of him. Many in Charleston were outraged that the officers had escaped any type of punishment. They were especially angry that Pemberton blamed Ferguson. The Charleston Daily Courier published a response to Pemberton’s decision on its front page. It argued that Ferguson had three other steamers in the government’s employ and, as a contractor, was not “responsible for the military custody of the boat and its freight.” The paper also argued that had a “proper investigation” been held when Ripley’s barge was taken weeks earlier, the Planter would have remained safe.32
Be Free or Die--The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero Page 8