Daring Escape Civil War "T3" Leadership!

OTD in 1862, Robert Smalls freed himself, his crew, and their families from slavery during the Civil War by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS PLANTER in Charleston harbor, and piloting it from Confederate-controlled waters to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it. He then sailed the ship to the Union-controlled enclave in Beaufort–Port Royal–Hilton Head area, where it became a U.S. Navy ship. His example and persuasion helped convince President Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army. Smalls’ inspirational style:?

• TEAMWORK: Docked on the Cooper River in Charleston, in the early morning hours of May 13, 1862, with the Confederate crew sleeping ashore, Smalls gathered his family, the other enslaved crew and their families and headed toward the Atlantic. He donned the top hat and long coat of the Confederate captain. As the boat’s pilot, he knew the various codes executed with the ship’s whistle to get past the forts in the harbor. He calmly sailed past the five forts in the harbor and to freedom aboard the USS ONWARD outside the harbor.?As astonished Union officers boarded the PLANTER, Smalls stood at attention, saluted, and spoke: “I am delivering this war material including these cannons and I think Uncle Abraham Lincoln can put them to good use.” Smalls spoke with the Union Navy’s on scene commander, Admiral Du Pont (yes, Dupont Circle in Washington, DC is named for him!), who afterwards wrote to Secretary of the Navy Welles that "this man, Robert Smalls, is superior to any who has yet come into our lines, intelligent as many of them have been. His information has been most interesting, and portions of it of utmost importance. … I shall continue to employ Robert as a pilot on board PLANTER for inland waters.”?So Smalls came back to fight in the war. As a result of bravery under fire, he became the first African American to command (as a Civilian) a USN ship, the newly re-designated USS PLANTER
• TONE:?When questioned about his Republican political affiliation, he defended his choice thusly, “[I am a member of] The Party of Lincoln which unshackled the necks of four million human beings”
• TENACITY: After the American Civil War, Smalls returned to Beaufort and became a politician, winning election as a Republican to the South Carolina Legislature, and was later elected to five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. He founded the South Carolina Republican Party and authored state legislation providing for first free and compulsory public school system in the U.S.

For more motivational “T3” leadership stories, visit: https://TheBeckerT3Group.com/blog

Rear Admiral Paul Becker, USN (Ret) is the former Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.? He is the President of the Becker T3 Group https://TheBeckerT3Group.com and a leadership Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.?