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18621776 Club

Robert Smalls steals the CSS Planter; in the captain's hat, he sails past five Confederate forts

He brings out his family, seven crewmen and their families, four artillery pieces, and the Confederate signal codebook and harbor mine charts.

At 3:00 a.m. on May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls — an enslaved wheelman who had been barred from the title of "pilot" because of his race — put on Captain Relyea's uniform and straw hat, gave the correct steam-whistle signals at each Confederate checkpoint, and sailed the CSS Planter past five Confederate forts and out of Charleston Harbor to the Union blockade fleet. He brought with him his wife, his children, the families of seven crewmen, four artillery pieces, 200 pounds of ammunition, the captain's Confederate signal codebook, and a map of every mine in the harbor…

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More from May 13
1846

Congress declares war on Mexico; Polk tells the nation its blood was shed on its own soil

The vote formalizes three weeks of open conflict rooted in a disputed border, the annexation of Texas, and a decade of unresolved claims between two nations.
1985

Philadelphia police drop a bomb on a row house; fire spreads for hours, killing 11

Commissioner Sambor ordered the strike on 6221 Osage Ave; officials let the blaze run until 61 homes are ash and 250 people have nowhere to sleep.
1780

256 settlers sign a constitution at French Lick; judges' pay set in animal skins

Robertson and Donelson lead the compact at Fort Nashborough, electing a twelve-judge council the people may remove from office.
19431776 Club
Operation Vulcan stretches from Longstop Hill to Hill 609, battering a quarter-million trapped Axis troops whose fuel lines are already cut.
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More from Civil War & Reconstruction
1866

Tennessee is back in the Union; no other rebel state gets the deal

Congress lets Tennessee skip military rule because it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment first.
1866

Congress creates a new rank so Grant outranks every soldier alive

The four-star General of the Army exists for one man, and one man only holds it.
1868

Johnson signs the Wyoming Organic Act as territory takes shape along the rail line

The boundaries drawn this week already look like the Wyoming on today's map.
1861

Five days after Bull Run, Lincoln hands his broken army to McClellan

The thirty-four-year-old general inherits a demoralized force and calls the deference of Lincoln, the Cabinet, and Scott a 'strange operation of magic'.
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