A few weeks later, Secretary Welles was to open a package sent him at Du Pont’s order; it contained a Rebel naval banner and a South Carolina Palmetto flag. Coincidentally, it was at that time that the commodore was made a rear admiral. In the meantime, Smalls embarked on what was to prove a very busy career.

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Du Pont immediately passed on wheelman Smalls’ information on Rebel deployment to General Hunter. This precipitated a decision by Hunter to begin a move toward a position from which Charleston could be assaulted. Smalls participated in that move, piloting the Planter for the Union navy.

The move met only partial success. Union delays enabled the Rebels to prepare a defense. This was not Smalls’ fault. In his December 1862 Annual Report, the navy secretary credited Smalls with the information that made it possible to establish on the Stono Inlet and Stono River ‘an important base for future military operations.’ This accomplished ‘virtually a turning of the forces in Charleston Harbor.’

While Smalls was being launched on a new career, attention in the U.S. Congress turned to the question Du Pont raised about prize money for the Planter’s black crewmen. The prize laws did not cover the case. But promptly, on May 19, 1862, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate, directing the secretary of the navy to make an appraisal of the vessel and its cargo and to have half the appraised value apportioned, in cash, equitably among Smalls and his fellows, the equivalent of a prize award. By unanimous consent, reference to a committee was omitted, and the Senate passed the bill that very day. An effort to spur the House of Representatives into action before the day’s end was obstructed by dissenting congressmen, but a few days later the measure was brought forward and quickly adopted by a vote of 121 to 9. On May 30 President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law.

Secretary Welles promptly directed Du Pont to carry out the statute. It was Du Pont’s idea that Smalls and his associates should be paid $20,000 with $5,000 going to Smalls. But at that point the matter reached the hands of penny-pinching appraisers-doubtless not keen about lining the pockets of mere ex-slaves. The Planter was appraised at $9,000 and her cargo at $168-ridiculously low figures. The apportionment of half that sum made by Du Pont was a payment of $1,500 to Smalls, sums ranging from $348 to $450 to each of the other men, and $100 each to two of the women.

If Smalls realized than the inadequacy of that payment, his actions in his new career never betrayed resentment. Throughout the Civil War he served the Union with distinction, an invaluable pilot on coastal waters he knew well, endowed with indomitable courage. He took part in 17 engagements. One was the April 1863 naval attack on Charleston; in it Smalls piloted the ironclad Keokuk. Though the attack was a failure, Smalls’ performance in it was truly professional.

In autumn 1862, the Planter was’sold’ by the U.S. Navy to the U.S. Army. She had done fine naval service, but because she was a wood-burner, the coal-powered navy had difficulty keeping her fueled. For the army, much in need of coastal transport, wood fuel posed no problem. In time, the army hired Smalls as the Planter’s pilot.

On a December day Smalls was piloting the boat on a supply mission along one of the waterways near Charleston, with a white captain in command. Suddenly, devastating Rebel artillery fire blanketed the Planter. The captain panicked and wanted to surrender. But Smalls defied his captain. Surrender would be grim for him and other former slaves in the crew. The captain slunk down into the hold. Smalls took charge and brought the Planter through the shelling. Awaiting him at the landing were thousands of cheering troops. Union Major General Quincy A. Gillmore, Hunter’s successor, at once promoted Smalls to captain of the Planter. And a captain he was to remain, through the rest of the war and after-until the Planter was sold by the army in autumn 1866.

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