John Small

John Small freed himself, his wife Susan, and their infant son Phillip during a dangerous escape aboard the Confederate steamer, Planter. In the early hours of May 13, 1862, members of the enslaved crew commandeered the ship before silently guiding it past Fort Sumter into the safety of the Union Navy blockading Charleston Harbor.1 As the ship’s engineer, John was instrumental in the success of the mission in which he and pilot Robert Smalls brought a total of sixteen men, women and children out of slavery and into freedom.²

Born about 1838 to Stephen and Harriet Small in Charleston, John married Susan during the tumultuous months before the outbreak of the Civil War. Together, they had at least one son and three daughters; Phillip (born in 1861), Rosa (born in 1863), Ann Amelia (1865 – died before 1869) and Lucretia (born in 1867).³ His parents’, wife and children’s surnames are often spelled “Smalls”, but John signed his name “Small” and at present there is no verifiable familial connection to Robert Smalls.

Following their escape from enslavement, John Small and his family settled in Beaufort where he worked as an engineer before joining the 2^nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment on March 20, 1863. His muster card tells us that he was 25 years old, a tall man standing 5’ 10” and of “black” complexion. Immediately appointed 1^st Sergeant, Small was reduced to 2^nd Sergeant on May 1, 1863, but there are no notes among his records as to the cause. It is likely that as a member of “The Second South” John participated in Combahee Raid on the 1^st and 2^nd June 1863, assisting in the liberation of approximately 750 enslaved people.⁴ For the remainder of his military service, the records are limited: the company muster roll for January and February 1864 remarks that John was “In arrest” but no reason was given. The 2^nd South Carolina Volunteers participated in skirmishing and military action along the Atlantic Coast from Jacksonville, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. In February 1864, the 2^nd South Carolina was disbanded and consolidated with other Black infantry units into the 34^th United States Colored Troops. Serving as a sergeant in Company C, John participated in the Battle of Honey Hill, near Ridgeville, SC where hard fighting in rugged terrain saw US forces pushed back despite gallant action.⁵

After leaving military service, John Small returned to Beaufort where he completed Freedman’s Bank Application No. 3482 in July 1869. Fortunately for our research, he provided important details about himself and his family in addition to signaling his literacy by signing his own name. John stated that he was about 30, born and raised in Charleston but was then living in Beaufort. He worked as an engineer and was proud of his military service, writing under his name on the application; “Sergt. Co C. 34^th”.⁶ John’ family consisted of wife Susan, son Philip, aged eight, Lucretia, aged eighteen months, Rosa, aged 6 and Ann Amelia, who had died but was not forgotten. In that summer of 1869, John’s parents, Stephen and Harriet Smalls were alive, as was his brother Nat and sister Cretia, all of whom spelled their surname “Smalls”.

By July 26, 1870, John Small had moved back to Charleston and was working as a stevedore on the docks. Susan, called Sue in the census, kept house, and was noted to have a physical or mental impairment since the census taker has ticked the column “Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic”. With John and Sue are 8-year-old Phil and 2-year-old Lucretia along with an 11-year-old girl, “El” described as a domestic servant. Interestingly, next door to them was a 38-year-old woman named “Any White”, working as a laundress who may be the Annie White who was also on Planter.⁷

On February 13, 1871, John completed a second account with the Freedman’s Bank, account number 6504 and again kindly provided historians with a little more information about his life and family. He was still living in Charleston at 25 Wall Street and working as a laborer “on the Bay”. With him was his wife Susan and their children Philip, Lucretia, and Rosa. He remembered Anne Amelia, who died sometime before the summer of 1869 by listing her among his children. Small’s father Stephen was still living but his mother Harriet died between July 1869 and February 1871. His brother Nat and sister Lucretia were still living but sister Rosa, not named in the 1869 application, had also died. Again, John Small signed his own name.

Two years later, John Small was still living in Charleston when on 1 July 1873 he served as witness for the pension application of Robert Stevens, a soldier from Company D, 34^th USCT.⁸ On 24 October 1873, John again served as a witness for Archy Small, a possible relative although Small/Smalls is a popular surname in the South Carolina Lowcountry. In support of Archy’s pension application as a fellow veteran of the Company G, 34^th USCT, John affirmed that he and Archy had been neighbors in Charleston for the previous three years.

John Small makes his last appearance in the historical record on August 19, 1874, when he received $286.26 for his service in Company G, 34^th USCT, bounty # 525557.⁹ After this date, John vanished from the record and cannot be located with any certainty. A man named John Small died in Charleston on June 2, 1875, while another John Small died in Charleston on September 7, 1875. Same man, different men, “our” John Small? It is impossible to know with certainty.¹⁰

Resources

1. There are many contemporary sources available in newspaper archives. See: The New York Herald. (New York, N.Y.), 18 May 1862. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1862-05-18/ed-1/seq-1/; “A Strike for Freedom” by Alfred Gourdine, Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan), 17 December 1893, p. 30, Newspapers.com Dec 17, 1893, page 30 - Detroit Free Press at Newspapers.com For books, see: Cate Lineberry, Be Free or Die. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
2. Heroes in Ebony – The captors of the Rebel steamer Planter; Robert Small, W. Morrison, A. Gradine and John Small. United States, 1862. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/99403228/.
3. The National Archives, Washington, DC. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874; Volume: Roll 20: Beaufort, South Carolina; Jun 20, 1868-Jul 3, 1874, Record Group Number: 101; Record Group: Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-2006.
4. Exact numbers of the people freed in the Combahee Raid vary according to eyewitness reports but hover around 750. See Edda L. Fields. Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War. London: Oxford University Press, 2024. 
5. 34^th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, Battle Unit Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)
6. The National Archives, Washington, DC. US, Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the American Civil War, compiled 1890 - 1912, documenting the period 1861 – 1866, Civil War Service Records (CMSR), Colored Troops 31^st – 35^th Infantry, 1861-1865. “John Small”, Record Group 94; The National Archives, Washington, DC. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874; Volume: Roll 20: Beaufort, South Carolina; Jun 20, 1868-Jul 3, 1874, Record Group Number: 101, Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-2006.
7. US Census, 1870, Charleston Ward 3, Charleston, South Carolina. Roll M593, Roll 1386, page 141.
8. The National Archives, Washington, DC; Records of the Field Offices of the Freedmen's Branch, Office of the Adjutant General, 1872-1878; NARA Series Number: M2029; NARA Reel Number: 1; NARA Record Group Number: 105; NARA Record Group Name: Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861 - 1880; Collection Title: United States Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records 1865-1872., Roll 1.
9. The National Archives, Washington, DC; Freedmen’s Bureau Records, 1865-1878; NARA Series Number: M1910; Roll 61, Register of Bounty Claims.
10. Cole, Jennifer, comp. Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina Black Deaths 1871-89. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. NB: Index only, original images on microfilm at Charleston Library.