![]() The explosion had killed a powder-boy manning one of the guns. īlake then went to the ship's gun deck and was immediately knocked down by an exploding Confederate shell. ![]() As Lieutenant Commander Meade jumped from his bed and ran onto the quarter deck to give the order to return fire, Blake followed behind him, handed him his uniform, and urged him to change out of his night clothes. Early that morning, in the Stono River, the Marblehead came under fire from a Confederate howitzer at Legareville on Johns Island. ![]() īy December 25, 1863, Blake had been transferred to the gunboat USS Marblehead and was serving as a steward to Lieutenant Commander Richard Worsam Meade. While on North Island, Robert Blake answered a call for twenty single men to serve on the USS Vermont. ![]() About 400 slaves from the plantation, including Robert Blake, were taken as contraband onto Union ships and sent to North Island in Winyah Bay. In June 1862, his owner's plantation was burned during a Union naval expedition up the Santee River. Robert Blake was born into slavery in Virginia. But, because Carney's Medal of Honor action occurred first, Carney, not Blake, is usually credited with being the first African American Medal of Honor recipient. Blake was the first African American to actually receive a Medal of Honor - his was presented to him in 1864, while Carney did not receive his until 1900. Blake was the second African American to perform a Medal of Honor action William Harvey Carney was the first. Robert Blake was a Union Navy sailor during the American Civil War and a recipient of America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. Navy poster featuring Contraband Robert Blake ![]()
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