| |
| |
Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Robert Blake
There were blacks who served in an integrate union Navy and some who were members of the USS Monitor. As a matter of fact, the first black in the Navy to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor was Robert Blake, an ex-slave.
Blake distinguished himself during the Civil War , while serving as a powder boy on board the U.S., "marblehead", in an engagement with a confederates in the Stono River, off Legareville, S.C., on December 25, 1863. The commander of the "marblehead", Richard W. Meade Jr., reported Blake excited his admiration by the cool and brave manner in which Blake fired the rifle gun. The action of the union worship caused the confederates to abandon their island position, leaving a caisson behind.
The first Medal of Honor, approved by President Abraham Lincoln , was first presented to the Navy on December 21, 1861, and later to members of the Army, July 12, 1862. This is the highest American Award for military valor. Typical descriptions of their actions, cited black military persons as acting "gallantly and bravely."
USS Marblehead (1862-1865)
USS Marblehead, a 691-ton Unadilla class screw steam gunboat, was built at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Commissioned in March 1862, she initially served on Virginia's York and Pamunkey Rivers in support of the Army's Peninsular campaign. In mid-1862, Marblehead was transferred to the blockade of the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, where she participated in engagements with the Confederates on the Stono River, S.C., in July and December 1863 and the bombardment of Fort Wagner in Charleston harbor in August 1863.
Damaged by enemy gunfire during an intense 25 December 1863 battle on the Stono River, Marblehead went north for repairs. From June 1864 until September 1866 she was a practice ship at the Naval Academy, taking time off from that employment to conduct coastal patrols during the last part of 1864. As a unit of the North Atlantic Squadron, the gunboat operated in the Caribbean from late 1866 until mid-1868. USS Marblehead decommissioned and was sold in September 1868. She was subsequently converted to a sailing bark for civilian use.
It shows one of Marblehead's gun crews returning the Confederate fire. The man at left, wearing a nightshirt and holding a sword, is the ship's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Richard W. Meade, Jr., who had been suddenly awakened when the enemy opened fire. BLAKE, ROBERT
Contraband, U.S. Navy. Entered service at: Virginia. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Accredited to: Virginia.
Citation : On board the U.S. Steam Gunboat Marblehead off Legareville, Stono River, 25 December 1863, in an engagement with the enemy on John's Island. Serving the rifle gun, Blake, an escaped slave, carried out his duties bravely throughout the engagement which resulted in the enemy's abandonment of positions, leaving a caisson and one gun behind.
|
|
|
|
|
Articles & Briefings
