In May 1862, that meant ferrying munitions on a 150 foot side-wheel steamer called the Planter. House of Representatives.īorn into slavery in Beaufort, S.C., Robert Smalls was already such a skilled mariner by his 20s that his enslaver rented him out as a pilot in Charleston harbor. Naval vessel, and later served in the U.S. Smalls was the first Black man to command a U.S. Robert Smalls, a Civil War hero who escaped from slavery in 1862. Just seven years ago there was still a portrait of Lee and Jackson displayed in the ship's wardroom. Navy saw fit to name a warship for that battle.

military at Chancellorsville, Va., in 1863. Lee and Stonewall Jackson won a decisive victory over the U.S. 'Going from a Confederate victory to this incredible story of a former slave, who commandeered a Confederate ship and turned it over to the Union Navy.' 'It is a move much more consistent with the Navy's values,' said Capt.

The USS Chancellorsville is now called the USS Robert Smalls, the man who stole a Confederate steamer loaded with guns and delivered it to the Union Navy, delivering himself and 16 other crew and their families from slavery. Navy has finally shed the last two ship names that honored the Confederacy - and renamed one of them in honor of a man whose life story reads like an action movie hero. The USS Robert Smalls is shown here off the Japanese island of Iwo To, on its way to honor the fallen service members of the World War II battle of Iwo Jima. The USS Chancellorsville has been renamed the USS Robert Smalls, to honor the enslaved man who stole a Confederate battleship in the Civil War and delivered to the Union forces, loaded with weapons.

Navy war black