Charles Chisolm

Quick Facts

Significance:

Freedom Seeker on the Planter

Place of Birth:

South Carolina

Date of Birth:

Approximately 1840

Date of Death:

September 9, 1916

How do you write a biography of somebody when you don’t even know their name?  

When the Planter made its escape to freedom in the early hours of May 13, 1862 – one of the men onboard was named Chisolm. Who was Mr. Chisolm on board the Planter alongside Robert Smalls and the rest of the freedom seekers?  

Most accounts of the Planter claim that Chisolm worked aboard the Etiwan, a Confederate steamer operating around Charleston.¹ On the night before the escape, Chisolm led the families to North Atlantic Wharf and hid them in the Etiwan until the crew of the Planter could rendezvous with them and head to freedom. Not only did he hide the families of the crew, but he also served as another skilled set of hands that would be needed to operate the steamer on their strike to freedom. But the accounts of what Chisolm did, lead us no closer to identifying who Chisolm was.  

Identifying Mr. Chisolm is a challenge. In most of the newspaper articles written about the escape, Mr. Chisolm was identified as Sam or Samuel, but in at least two other accounts he is listed as Sam Chamberlin and Sam Chilson.² To only further complicate things, in the official report made by Admiral S.F. Du Pont, Mr. Chisolm is listed as J. Chisolm.³ Because of the numerous amounts of enslavers with the surname Chisolm, there are of course many formerly enslaved men with the surname Chisolm in the Charleston area at the end of the war. It was common practice for Freedmen to take the surname of their former enslaver whether it was an attachment to the land or a more familiar connection. So, the search began for a single Chisolm in a vast sea of Chisolms.  

Since most of the period newspaper articles list Mr. Chisolm as Sam or Samuel, the search started there. This led to three different Samuel (Sam) Chisolms in the Beaufort, Colleton, and Charleston Districts, but none with a clear connection to the Planter or her crew. Looking for a J. Chisolm from Du Pont’s report, there were two James Chisolms and three John Chisolms, but again no clear connection to the Planter or her crew. It was really a stroke of luck, researching Abram Allston, that we caught a break in the search of Mr. Chisolm. In a letter authored by Robert Smalls to the Commissioner of Pensions E.T. Ware, Smalls refers to Mr. Chisolm as Charles Chisolm.⁴  

The earliest record found for a possible Charles Chisolm was a Muster Roll for the USS Wabash on April 13, 1863. Chisolm is listed as a “Contraband,” a term commonly used by the US military during the war to describe people who have escaped slavery or were captured enemy “property.” It lists him as being enlisted on the USS Pembina & USS Vermont in August of 1862, just months after the daring escape.⁵ Both of those ships were part of the Southern Blockading Fleet and were stationed out of Port Royal in 1862, which was also the final destination of the Planter after the escape. This Chisolm is in the Muster Rolls for the USS Wabash throughout 1863, which show that he was born on Johns Island, just south of Charleston, in 1840.⁶ His service is also corroborated by a Navy Pension Application file.⁷ So, assuming this is the right Charles Chisolm, he joined the US Navy after emancipating himself aboard the Planter.  

It is hard to say where Chisolm was enslaved before the escape. There are records of Isaac P. Grimball leasing enslaved labor to the Confederates.⁸ But after the war, Charles Chisolm is found on a Freedmen’s Bureau List of Plantations as a resident of the Waterloo Plantation, owned by Isaac P. Grimball.⁹ It was restored to him in 1866 as part of President Johnson’s Amnesty Act.¹⁰ 

There are two US Census records that we believe to be the Charles Chisolm of the Planter escape. Charles Chisolm is listed on the 1870 US Census as a farmer, living on John’s Island, aged 31, with his wife Mira (35) and son, Franklin (1).¹¹ On the 1880 US Census Chisolm (40) is listed as a farmer living on John’s Island with his wife, Myra (36… apparently only aging a year over the decade) and four children: Frank (7), William(4), Abram(3), and Diana (2). It is possible that Mira has been misidentified on the census, both death records for Frank and William Chisolm list their father as Charles Chisolm and mother as Elvira with Frank’s death record giving her the maiden name Smalls.¹²  

Besides the Robert Smalls letter, there was one more piece of record that made us believe we had found the right Mr. Chisolm of the daring Planter escape. There is a claim made by a Charles Chisolm, of John’s Island, in 1890 in the U.S Freedmen's Bureau Records Registers of Claims.¹³ It has Charles Chisolm serving on the USS Pembina and USS Wabash as a Landsman, which is puzzling, because Black sailors were not given the rank of Landsman, only the more subordinate ranks of Boy or First Class Boy. But it is the reason for the claim, that led us to believe it was the same Mr. Chisolm that ushered the families of the crew to the Etiwan and to freedom. The claim is listed as “Prize money,” but prize money for what? In 1898 in a report of the Congressional Committee, the committee approved an additional $5,000 to Robert Smalls for a reward for the Planter. It is quite possible that Charles Chisolm was trying to do the very same thing.¹⁴ 

This Charles Chisolm returned to John’s Island after the war, where he started a family and lived out his days as a farmer. He didn’t appear to be politically active or soar to any level of popularity during his life, like some of the others on the Planter. Besides the handful of newspaper articles about the Planter, Charles Chisolm doesn’t appear in any other newspaper articles that we have found thus far. The U.S. Veterans Administration Master Index lists Charles Chisolm’s date of death as September 9, 1916, without an identified place of burial.¹⁵  

With the amount of Chisolms found doing this research, it is circumstantial, at best, that the Charles Chislom here is the Chisolm that waited on the Etiwan with the families of the Planter crew. With the evidence we have he is the strongest candidate, but nothing yet that is definitive to verify his identity. This research is an ongoing process, and hopefully the next source is the one definitive piece of evidence needed to confirm the identity of Mr. Chisolm. But until then we are left with reasonable doubt and a suggestion. Mr. Chisolm disappeared from a Charleston wharf in May of 1862, and has never been positively identified since. 

Resources

1. Cate Lineberry, Be Free or Die (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2017).
2. Detroit Free Press, “A Strike to Freedom,” Dec 17, 1893, from Newspapers.com. The New York Daily Herald, May 18, 1862, from Newspapers.com. The Record, “Important From South Carolina,” Jun 24, 1862, from Newspapers.com. W.A. Bacon, Black River Gazette, “Old Papers,” July 12,1872, from Newspapers.com. Hartford Courant, Jun 18, 1862, from Newspapers.com. The Charleston Daily Courier, “A Jackass in Lion’s Skin,” Oct 13, 1870, from Newspaper.com.
3. United States, War Department, The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. Washington: ser.1:v.12, pg. 825.
4. Robert Smalls, Robert Smalls to E.T. Ware, August 22, 1902.  
5. Muster Rolls of U.S.S. Wabash 1863, Muster Rolls of Naval Ships January 1, 1860 – June 9, 1900, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel Group 24, National Archives and Records Administration, NAID: 134453286.
6. Ibid pg. 51
7. Chisolm, Charles - Certificate Number 15760, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Civil War and Later Navy Veterans ca. 1861 – 1910, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs 1773 – 2007 Group 15, National Archives and Records Administration, NAID: 6449051.
8. Isacc P. Grimball, Receipts for Payment for Services, Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, 1861-65, Returns of Confederate Army Commands, Record Group 109, found on fold3.com.
9. Lists of Plantations on Sea Islands Feb 1866, Lists of Plantations on Sea Islands, February 1866–February 1866, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861–1880 Group 105, National Archives and Records Administration, NAID: 6250684.
10. Isaac P. Grimball Application for Restoration of Real Property, Records Relating to the Restoration of Property, 1865–1866, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861–1880 Group 105, National Archives and Records Administration, NAID: 6250686, found on ancestry.com.
11. 1870 US Census, Charleston County, South Carolina, Schedule 1, John’s Island, pg. 40, Chas Chisolm, from ancestry.com.
12. Standard Certificate of Death, Frank Chisolm, filled May 5, 1937, State of South Carolina, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State Board of Health, from ancestry.com. Standard Certificate of Death, William Chisolm, filled May 17, 1944, State of South Carolina, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State Board of Health, from ancestry.com. 
13. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Claim Division, Register of Claims District of South Carolina, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861–1880 Group 105, National Archives and Records Administration, from ancestry.com. 
14. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Claims, Robert Smalls: Report (to accompany S.1313), 55th Congress, 2nd sess., Senate Rep. 909.
15. U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940, Charles Chisolm, from ancestry.com.