A Union army had landed the previous November at Port Royal, 60 miles down the coast. It then was led by aggressive Major General David Hunter; threat of attack on Charleston was not academic. But for an assault the Union forces were in great need of shallow water transport; for them the Planter’s value was beyond measure. And there was a dividend. In addition to the Planter’s own armament-a 32-pounder cannon on a pivot in the fore and a 24-pounder howitzer aft-she had, in cargo (to have been delivered to a harbor battery that morning) four fine guns, a large supply of ammunition, and other materiel. (Two of the guns had once belonged to Sumter’s defeated Union garrison. Both had been damaged in the April 1861 bombardment opening the war, but were now repaired.)

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No wonder, then, that the Charleston press screamed that the Planter’s officers’ ‘criminal absence’ had been shameful, ‘disgusting treachery.’ The press of neighboring cities joined in, condemning the ‘gross negligence’ that called for ‘the prompt penalty of the halter rigorously enforced,’ and branding the abduction of the vessel ‘one of the most shameful events of this or any other war.’ It had occurred, said the press, because officers seemed to think that the war was ‘a nice frolic’ and neglected ‘personal attention to their commands.’

Union troops were delighted at having secured the Planter. But the acquisition had only been made after a very tense moment. That moment came when the tar on watch on the blockading ship nearest to the shore, the Onward, screamed an alarm. Approaching through the haze was a Rebel ram, the sailor believed. Quickly, the blockader was swung about to bring broadside guns to bear on the misty target. Just before the command to fire, another sailor cried out that he thought a white flag flew at the Rebel boat’s mast. Fire was withheld. Tension eased, when a bed sheet was seen billowing where, shortly before, Rebel banners had waved. The Planter glided to the Onward’s stern.

Leaning on the Planter’s rail was a black man wearing the hat and jacket of a Rebel ship captain. Doffing his hat, he shouted ‘Good morning, Sir! I’ve brought you some of the old United States guns, sir!’

On the Planter’s deck, yelling triumphantly, were seven other black men. Quickly, the Onward’s captain boarded the Planter, to be surrounded by joyous blacks begging that the Stars and Stripes be hoisted. That done, eight more blacks climbed from below, five women and three youngsters, one a baby. The mother held the baby high over her head and exhorted him to look at the U.S. flag, because it was a promise of a better life.

The jacket-clad black man was Robert Smalls. After telling his story to the Onward’s captain, he was sent on to the squadron commander to repeat it. It was decided that, under a Union crew, the Planter, with its black company, should be sent on to Port Royal, base of the blockading fleet. There, at 10:20 that night, as Commodore Du Pont (he would become a rear admiral a few weeks later) composed a long letter to his wife, he was interrupted in mid-sentence; a messenger bore news that a Rebel vessel had just been brought in, delivered that morning to the squadron off Charleston by the vessel’s chief crewman. Du Pont pushed his letter aside and sent for the ‘Hero,’ as he put it, to hear the story. When at length he resumed his letter, that story became a lively addition.

The next day, May 14, Du Pont sent a report of the incident to Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, concluding that, if the government considered the Planter a prize, Du Pont would ‘respectfully submit to the Department the claims’ of its black company. (Captured Confederate vessels, ‘prizes,’ were auctioned off in Northern ports. Half the proceeds went to the U.S. Government, half to the crewmen who seized the craft.) Also, he could not resist ribbing the Rebel command at Charleston: a civilian caught on another ship captured by the blockaders was sent back to Charleston with word that Du Pont found it ‘mortifying’ that the Planter should have been purloined from ‘officers whom he still considered his countrymen.’

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