Robert Smalls: House bill would name a Beaufort, S.C., post office branch for the Civil War hero, former slave

A bill naming a post office in Beaufort, S.C., for Civil War hero Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery by commandeering a Rebel steamship, has passed a US House committee.

“He leaves an unmistakable legacy of grit, bravery, and determination which is imbued in the spirit of the Lowcountry to this day,” Rep. Nancy Mace said in a statement Wednesday. She calls Smalls an "exceptional American."

At the start of the Civil War, the enslaved Smalls was a pilot on the CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past Charleston 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.

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.

The entire South Carolina congressional delegation supports the honor at a shopping plaza on, fittingly, Robert Smalls Parkway, Mace said. John Seibels, Mace’s spokesman, told the Island Packet newspaper that the bill will go the House floor for a vote, which he said will likely pass easily.

The naming would be the latest honor for Smalls.

After the war, he returned to his hometown Beaufort and bought his former master’s home. Following a stint 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. Smalls died in 1915 at age 75.

“Each day I spend in Congress, I strive to live up to the values which Robert Smalls so clearly embodied," said Mace.