![]() Of the steam-powered vessels, 21 were on foreign station, several were in yards being overhauled, and the balance were smaller vessels, tugs, supply craft, cutters, and other auxiliaries. They lay rotting in various yards and were used as receiving and store-ships and would be of little use in the war. There were 90 ships on the list, but more than half were sailing ships 40 to 50 years old. This proved to be the last straw for the Virginians, and within a month they had joined the Confederacy, making their state the last to leave the Union.Īt the outbreak of hostilities, the U.S. When Virginia and North Carolina refused to turn over the required regiments, Lincoln ordered the blockade extended to include those two states, even though they were still in the Union, and in spite of the fact that the Virginia legislature had passed a resolution of loyalty only two weeks before. Five weeks later, Lincoln ordered the naval blockade of the South, and called upon the loyal states to furnish 75,000 militia to retake the Federal property seized by the Confederates. ![]() This policy of indecision and failed reconciliation was to be partly responsible for giving the Southerners their most famous ship of war.īy the time president-elect Lincoln was sworn in on March 4, 1861, six more states had joined South Carolina and had formed the Confederate States of America. Up until the Star of the West incident, only South Carolina had seceded, but feelings were running high in Dixie and more states were expected to follow. government, at the time led by lame duck President James Buchanan, who was loath to do anything that the Southerners might view as provocative, and thus drive more states out of the Union. She was, however, unarmed and unescorted, and was forced to stand out to sea to prevent her capture or destruction. The ship carried 204 Union troops along with their arms and baggage, and several tons of ammunition and provisions for the relief of Fort Sumter. Actually, the Stars and Stripes was fired upon over three months earlier, on January 9, 1861, when the steamer Star of the West, under Federal charter, suffered hits from the same batteries that were to begin the war in April. ![]() As Congressman, Smalls pushed for legislation to desegregate the military.Most history books teach that the War between the States began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries ringing Charleston harbor fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender the following day. Congress, and won 80 percent of the vote. In 1874, he ran to become a Representative in the U.S. Congress awarded Smalls and his crew half of the ship’s value, and he was awarded the rank of Navy Captain. When they reached their destination, Smalls had carried himself and 15 other slaves to freedom behind Union lines: seven crewmen, five women, and three children. He had carefully studied his body language overtime, and also wore the captain's jacket over his shoulders with his straw hat. That morning at 4am, Smalls quietly took the ship from the wharf, and with a Confederate flag flying, steamed past the successive Confederate forts while pretending to be the boat's captain, C. It was extremely risky, but he was well-prepared. On May 13, 1862, Smalls decided to steal the ship and sail his way to freedom. ![]() Because of this, he knew the shipping routes, the checkpoints, and the codes and signals to get past the forts. His job was to help plant sea mines, deliver ammunition and supplies to Confederate outposts along the coast, and to steer the ship. In 1862, in middle of the Civil War, Smalls was a 23-year old who was working aboard the USS Planter, a sidewheel steamer that was being used by the Confederacy as an armed dispatch boat. Robert Smalls was born as a slave in 1839, but later became a free man after he cleverly managed to steal a confederate ship and steer his way to freedom.
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