Robert Smalls became a hero for bold escape with other enslaved persons. An Army ship named for him travels to where it happened

Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls in Kuwait (US Army photo)

The first Army vessel named for an African American will sail next week to Charleston, S.C., the city where Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate ship and became a hero to the Union cause.

At the start of the Civil War, the enslaved Smalls was a pilot on the steamship CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past the harbor's formidable defenses and surrendered the vessel to the Union blockade fleet. His wife and children were among those on board who gained freedom.

The Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls LSV-8 -- which carries troops, equipment and supplies – has been with the Army since 2007. It has been reassigned to Hawaii and transferred from the reserves to active duty, Maj. Oliver Schuster, an Army spokesman, said in a statement to the Picket.

The voyage from Virginia via the Panama Canal will take about 34 days.

LSV-8 will be part of the 8th Theater Sustainment Command in Hawaii. The command is led by Maj. Gen. David Wilson, a Charleston native and Citadel graduate. Wilson, a member of the Class of 1991, is the first African American graduate from the Citadel to become a two-star general.

“This voyage is unique as it will be the only time a vessel named after a son of Charleston will be in Charleston while in a unit commanded by another son of Charleston,” Schuster said in an email.

Harpers Weekly article on Smalls' daring ride (Library of Congress)

The vessel is expected to arrive in Charleston on or about March 15, Schuster said.

The 8th Theater Sustainment Command saved LSV-8 from being decommissioned by bringing it to active service in Hawaii, he said.

Smalls, 23 at the time, was celebrated across the North for his daring ride to freedom and he served as a ship’s pilot for the rest of the conflict.

After the war, Smalls returned to his hometown Beaufort and bought his former master’s home. After serving in South Carolina’s Legislature, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served several terms.

The congressman fought against the disenfranchisement of black voters across the South, according to the American Battlefield Trust. He also fought against segregation within the military.

Robert Smalls' portrait on ship's bridge (U.S. Army photo)

Smalls died in 1915 at age 75.

The Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls LSV-8 was inducted into the Army’s water fleet at a commissioning ceremony in September 2007 in Baltimore.

"This is a great day, and one I will never forget," Freddy Meyer, great-great grandson of Smalls, said at the event.

"Maj. Gen. Smalls was a renaissance man -- an educator, a politician, a soldier, a businessman and a family man, and the Army could not have picked a better person to name this ship after."