COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD)- South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) has tapped a Charleston-area representative to help oversee the construction of a statue memorializing Robert Smalls on the Statehouse grounds.
Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-Charleston) announced Monday that he was appointed to serve on the Robert Smalls Monument Commission. The commission is tasked with designing the monument, deciding where it will be located, and raising funds to pay for it.
“My fellow members of the commission and I look forward to the challenge of designing and raising funds for the statue and choosing the best spot for it,” Gilliard said in a statement. “Most of all, we wish to honor him in the way that he deserves for his contributions over the course of his life.”
A bill creating the commission unanimously passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster in May.
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Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort but was sent to Charleston to work on the CSS Planter, a steamboat chartered by the Confederate Army. He is credited with turning the tide of the war in favor of the Union when on May 13, 1862, he stole the ship and surrendered it to Union soldiers.