Ship honors Civil War hero

Clyburn to attend Baltimore commissioning

Normally, the commissioning of a U.S. Army Reserve ship wouldn't be a big enough deal to prompt a top congressional leader to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on his day off and travel 500 miles for the event.

But U.S. Rep. James Clyburn plans to do exactly that today because he feels so strongly about the 19th-century figure for whom this ship is named. Clyburn will visit Baltimore Harbor this morning as a Logistics Support Vessel-8 is commissioned in honor of Robert Smalls, whose daring Civil War exploits made history.

In 1862, the 23-year-old slave led a revolt with his wife and other slaves. They commandeered the Confederate ship Planter and sailed it past Charleston's defenses and into the hands of the Union navy. A year later, he became the first black captain of a U.S. naval vessel, and he is the first black honored by having an Army vessel named for him.

Although Smalls is best known for his wartime deeds, Clyburn said he will focus today on another part of Smalls' legacy. Three years after the war, as South Carolina held a constitutional convention, Smalls called for establishing a free public school system. "That was not just the first time for South Carolina. That was the first time in this country," Clyburn said.

"If you look at that period of black involvement before the turn of the 20th century, I figure Robert Smalls, to say this in a sports way, pound for pound may have been the most important figure in that period of time," Clyburn added. "Who would have had a greater impact than the person who started out free public education for the masses?"

Clyburn, the second black congressman to serve as Majority Whip and the first black to represent South Carolina since Reconstruction, has been passionate about giving black South Carolinians their historical due.

He also penned a forward to a biography of Smalls. "Outside of his native Beaufort County, I know of no towns or streets named in his honor. I know of no buildings or institutions that bear his name. There are no likenesses of him gracing town squares and images on museum walls," Clyburn wrote. "Robert Smalls should rank the most honored and recognized South Carolinians, but he does not simply because of the color of his skin."

Reach Robert Behre at rbehre@postandcourier.com or 937-5771.