THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603130143
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THUMBS UP
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Since retiring the Navy uniform he wore for 30 years, Thomas Sledge has brought the past to life wearing the rags of a Colonial slave and the Union blue of a Civil War soldier.
The 51-year-old Great Bridge High School history teacher is an avid re-enactor of bygone eras who has spoken at libraries and museums throughout the South.
``When I was a kid growing up in school when I looked at the history books on the Civil War all I heard is that we were slaves and nothing else,'' said Sledge. ``We were kind of shortchanged on the contribution of African-Americans in U.S. history.''
Sledge returned to his Navy roots last month at the Living Sea auditorium inside Nauticus, where he spoke about the life of black sailors in the Civil War. The talk was presented by the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, located at the Nauticus building in Norfolk.
A service buddy introduced Sledge to re-enactments in 1990, two years before Sledge retired from the Navy as a chief warrant officer. Sledge said re-enacting eventually led to public speaking. To keep up with the demands of portraying believable characters capable of answering any audience question, Sledge poured himself into research and pursued accurate uniforms and accessories. The walls of the den in his suburban home are lined with history books, and the room's closet is packed with historic military uniforms, period weapons and Colonial-era garb.
Sledge came across a photo of sailors sitting on the deck of USS Monitor while researching the Civil War. He noticed a black sailor in the bottom corner of the photograph and learned that he was believed to have been one of four African-Americans aboard the ship. He continued researching. Said Sledge, ``Since I'm an ex-sailor, it seemed good to get into it.''
According to Sledge, more than 9,000 black sailors served during the Civil War. Of those, only 260 were killed in action, compared to the nearly 38,000 black soldiers killed. ``Battles at sea were very infrequent,'' explained Sledge.
While sailors had a better chance at survival than soldiers, Sledge said conditions aboard ship were barely livable. Meals were rationed and frequently bug-infested. Sailors lived in cramped quarters, sleeping in hammocks stacked bare inches apart. The heat aboard wooden ships was unbearable, said Sledge, and conditions aboard the ironclads were worse. Thicker than the humidity inside the metal walls was the aroma. ``They might have had one salt water bath a week if they were lucky,'' said Sledge.
Even though blacks served side by side with whites, segregation existed at sea. Sledge said when enough blacks served on the same ship, they would usually sleep and eat together. When there were only a few, he said, they probably stayed with the rest of the crew.
Inequality also existed in promotions. Blacks were not allowed to advance into senior enlisted ranks. At best, a black sailor who had served aboard a Union ship for five years could rise to the rank of seaman. Despite imposed limitations, several black sailors proved their valor under fire, some even earning the Congressional Medal of Honor.
But not all black sailors served the North.
``They did serve the Confederate navy, just like they did in the Confederate army,'' said Sledge. ``Why? Nobody knows. . . Maybe it was loyalty to their states. That black guy was just as loyal to his state as that white guy was. Some of that was probably by force, because some of them were slaves.
``Because of the manpower shortage in the South, they probably said, `Hey, we need these sailors.' ''
Dressed in his Civil War sailor uniform and surrounded by weapon replicas and even a sample of ``hard tack'' biscuits eaten aboard ships, Sledge relayed the stories of several known black heroes. Such as Robert Smalls, who led several black Confederate sailors in the theft of the Confederate ship Planter. And 12-year-old Benjamin Gray, who enlisted in the Confederate Navy and served as a powder boy aboard a Confederate ship, delivering powder from the magazines to the main deck during combat. North Carolina gave Gray a pension after the war for his Confederate service.
Eddie Allen, who portrays a modern U.S. Navy officer at an exhibit at Nauticus, caught Sledge's talk at Nauticus last month.
``He's making people aware of something they probably don't know about,'' said Allen after the presentation. ``I'm a black man who didn't know these people.''
It is an introduction Sledge is glad to make.
``A lot of people still don't know how many of us participated in the Civil War,'' said Sledge. ``I think this is something I have to do as a teacher, as an educator and as a black person.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Thomas Sledge, a 51-year-old Great Bridge High School history
teacher, is an avid re-enactor of bygone eras.
by CNB