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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
1861

Tennessee votes to leave the Union; the eleventh state is also the last

Middle Tennessee swings from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor today, providing the decisive margin, though East Tennessee refuses to accept the result.
1863

Pleasonton crosses the Rappahannock at dawn; Stuart's cavalry fights all day to hold Fleetwood Hill

Eleven thousand Union horsemen hit the Confederate camps from two directions at once, and though the Federals withdraw by nightfall, the aura of easy Southern dominance on horseback does not survive the day.
1865

Meade stands down the Army of the Potomac; it ceases to exist, two years to the day after he took command

The army that bled at Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness is disbanded before summer is out.
1864

Lincoln signs Yosemite Valley over to California; the federal government sets aside scenic land for the public for the first time

Senator Conness shepherded the bill through Congress; the valley the Ahwahnechee called Ah-wah-nee for 3,000 years is now a public trust.
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