History is sometimes frustratingly blank when looking for answers. What do we do when records are few and far between?

By Laura Jowdy, Senior Director of Archives, Historical Collections and Museum

Who Was Robert Blake?

In many ways, Robert Blake is a mystery. Like most of us, many terms have been used to describe him: Medal of Honor Recipient, enslaved person, “contraband,” sailor, brave, intelligent, and hero.

What we do know is:

1. A Black man, he was enslaved on a plantation called Oak Grove, located in the high grass swampland of coastal South Carolina, not far from McClellanville on the South Santee River, just north of Charleston.
2. He escaped slavery in June 1862 and joined the U.S. Navy.
3. He fought with valor at Legareville, South Carolina, onboard the USS Marblehead in 1863.
4. He received the Medal of Honor in 1864 for actions.

Why Was Coastal South Carolina So Important During the Civil War?

The coastal areas of the South were key transportation routes for the Confederacy, allowing for the movement of troops, supplies and trade. Knowing this, the Union Navy began systematically blocking these trade routes, including the key port of Charleston, South Carolina. To work around the blockades, the South was forced to use smaller, more easily maneuverable vessels to avoid the Union forces. Coastal South Carolina, crisscrossed with multiple convenient tidal waterways surrounded by shifting coastal islands, but covered in camouflaging plants and tall grasses, was perfect for those smaller vessels, called “blockade runners,” at high tides.

Why Were Plantations A Key Part of the Confederate Defense System in Coastal South Carolina?

Decades before, the coastal areas of South Carolina were found to be perfect conditions to grow rice and cotton, large-scale plantation goods. In South Carolina, rice quickly became king once introduced – the return on monetary investment was just too good to ignore.

Enslaved labor carved the land from the coastal swamplands, transforming the marshy areas into large plantations to grow rice. This consisted of the backbreaking work of plying up, by hand, existing marsh grass and hundreds-year old hardwood trees like mangroves; sculpting the land into rows of built-up areas with gridded waterways to provide the water needed for the heavily water-dependent crops; and surviving with disease-spreading insects, alligators, and snakes.

As the years went by, coastal South Carolina became home to many such plantations, each like an inhabited island along key waterways, surrounded by a sea of river marshland. The monumental engineering changes to the land are still evident on maps today, particularly in the Santee Coastal Reserve, where the river is shown running in right angles — blocks of land which were created by enslaved hands to facilitate the growth of crops. The land that was Oak Grove Plantation is now part of that Reserve. A walking trail traces around the site.

During War, the Confederacy placed land-based troops along the inner waterways to protect their blockade runners. The island-like plantations quickly became ideal places to station those troops. The Union, aware of the blockade runners, would chase them down whenever they could, clashing with the Confederate troops at the plantations. A new hardship was brought to the doorsteps of the enslaved people.

How was Oak Grove Plantation Important?

Oak Grove Plantation, where Robert Blake was enslaved, became a posting for a regiment of Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. It was located along the South Santee River, a major watershed that runs to the ocean, which made it a perfect river for blockade runners to sneak their cargo past the Union Navy. The Confederates were there to help the blockade runners reach inland areas to deliver and pick up goods.

By the time Robert Blake was born, Oak Grove Plantation had been in existence since the 1730s and had expanded quite a bit since its founding. When the Civil War began, one man owned it along with two other plantations in the area. The three properties were devoted to the production of rice, cotton, and pastureland, all made possible by the unpaid labor of 400 enslaved persons. Over two-thirds of those people, 286, worked at Oak Grove.

We know so much about these plantations because in 1871, the owner petitioned the U.S. government for compensation for his losses during the War. He’d left South Carolina for England at the start of the War, leaving the management of his three plantations to overseers while he lived in peace. As part of his petition, he provided a list of all the enslaved people at all three plantations, including their ages, but noticeably, not last names or skillsets. He claimed the value of what he lost in the war amounted to at least $400,000. He also claimed that he was owed the wages of the enslaved people at his plantations that went to work for Union forces. In 1875, the U.S. Congress unequivocally rejected his petition.

How Did Robert Blake End Up in the Union Navy?

On June 25, 1862, the Union Navy sent three ships up the Santee River to take out a bridge. Unsuccessful in that mission, the ships were returning to sea when they were fired upon by the Confederate regiment stationed at Oak Grove Plantation. The ships returned fire and sent a landing party ashore. The fight lasted only an hour. By the end of it, the Union forces had routed the Confederates and burned the plantation buildings to the ground, along with thousands of bushels of rice. Nearly 400 enslaved persons voluntarily left with the retreating Union ships. Among them was a Robert Blake.

There were two Robert Blakes at Oak Grove – the 1871 petition gives their ages as 11- and 28-years-old at the start of the Civil War. One of them escaped on June 5, 1862, with four other enslaved persons in a boat and found their way to a Union Navy ship called the U.S. Bark Gem of the Sea. It is believed this was the 28-year-old Robert Blake, because the report filed by the Commanding Officer of the Gem of the Sea described only three of the five as “boys,” and Robert was not one of them.

The second Robert Blake, the one that left with the Union ships on June 25, must have been the 11-year-old. He and the others were taken to North Island in Winyah Bay, South Carolina, just off the coast of Georgetown. North Island, only 9 miles long, was being used as makeshift home for the formerly enslaved people that followed Union forces. The Oak Grove Plantation arrivals swelled the population to more than 600 people, with more arriving daily.

Union Navy muster rolls show that the Robert Blake who went on to receive the Medal of Honor enlisted on board the USS Vermont, stationed at Port Royal, South Carolina, just down the coast.

It is believed that this was the younger Robert Blake, the 11-year-old who left the plantation on June 25, because a group of single, freed men were sent from North Island to help on the USS Vermont in July 1862.

A month later, Union General Orders No. 109 of August 1862, authorized the hiring of those of African descent, from certain Southern states, for the Union’s War effort, paying them an appropriate sum for their labor.

Why Did Robert Blake Receive the Medal of Honor?

It was not wholly without precedent for someone so young to serve in the Navy during the 19^th century. The Navy had a whole rating system for them and viewed them as something like apprentices, learning the ways of a military sea vessel. A number of them, like Blake, also received the Medal of Honor. However, Blake, due to his African descent, was mostly recorded with the rank of “contraband,” a term held over from when the Union Navy still prohibited enlisting freed persons.

Blake was on the Vermont for only a few months before he was transferred to the USS Marblehead.

Around 6 a.m. on December 25, 1863, Christmas Day, the Marblehead was part of the same sort of Union contingent that carried him away from Oak Grove Plantation, seeking out blockade runners and trying to hit at Confederate infrastructure.

Legareville, South Carolina, rested at the confluence of the Stono and Kiawah Rivers, just south of Charleston. Used to being a wealthy resort town, it had been abandoned after the start of the War. Reminiscent of the situation at Oak Grove Plantation, Confederates had also set up batteries there. As the Marblehead steamed by that Christmas Day, the Southern troops opened fire.

Despite the heavy fire, the ship’s crew fought valiantly for an hour. The ship was severely damaged, but the Confederates withdrew, leaving behind at least one gun and caisson.

In the after-action report, dated December 25, Lieutenant Commander Richard W. Meade, Jr., wrote that “Robert Blake, a contraband, excited my admiration by the cool and brave manner in which he served the rifle gun.”

Several months later, in April 1864, Meade further expanded on Blake’s role in the battle: “he was the powder boy of the 20 powder rifle gun and stationed on the … forecastle. This gun was fired 72 times during the fight. It may therefore be readily surmised how well Blake served it.” He also wrote that “Blake is quite an intelligent Negro, although of course, utterly uneducated, having been a field hand on his late master’s plantation” and “he was made a seaman by Admiral [John A.] Dahlgren at this commander’s instance and was transferred in January last to the U.S. Ship Vermont at Port Royal, S.C.”

Three others would also receive the Medal of Honor for the fight: William Farley, James Miller, and Charles Moore.

What Happened to Robert Blake?

The January 1864 transfer back to the Vermont meant that Robert Blake was finally, officially enlisted in the US Navy and his rank was changed to “contraband landsman.” He shows up on the muster rolls throughout the rest of the year.

Following the War, he disappeared into history. We don’t even have a photograph of him. In some ways, maybe that’s the key to his story. We can close it out how we want to. We can say he lived it how he desired to, seizing his new life with his own two hands and making of it what he wanted. After all, he survived enslavement and War, and perhaps more than most of us, earned the right to the right to create his own destiny. We don’t need to know further details to carry on his legacy — a person of resilience, resistance, and courage; a person of inspiration.

Walking in the Footsteps of Heroes

• Legareville, SC: Legareville is a rural part John’s Island, SC, south of Charleston. The resort town is long gone.
• Oak Grove Plantation: Today, the land that was Oak Grove Plantation is part of the Santee Coastal Reserve, off the coast of Georgetown, SC. A walking trail surrounds the area.
• North Island, Winyah Bay, SC: The North Island is now a part of the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. It is a restricted area used for conservation, education, and ecological studies.

About the Congressional Medal of Honor Society

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Medal of Honor, inspiring America to live the values the Medal represents, and supporting Recipients of the Medal as they connect with communities across America.

Chartered by Congress in 1958, its membership consists exclusively of those individuals who have received the Medal of Honor. There are fewer than 70 living Recipients.

The Society carries out its mission through outreach, education and preservation programs, including the Medal of Honor Museum, Medal of Honor Outreach Programs, the Medal of Honor Character Development Program, and the Medal of Honor Citizen Honors Awards for Valor and Service. The Society’s programs and operations are funded by donations.

As part of Public Law 106-83, the Medal of the Honor Memorial Act, the Medal of Honor Museum, which is co-located with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s headquarters on board the U.S.S. Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, was designated as one of three national Medal of Honor sites.

Learn more about the Medal of Honor and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s initiatives at cmohs.org