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Biographies of the Crew of the Monitor
Siah Carter
On the night of May 15, 1862, the Monitor
was anchored off City Point, Virginia. The sailors on watch
were alarmed by the sound of an approaching boat. Fearing attack
by Confederate saboteurs, the Monitor sailors armed themselves
with small arms and began firing into the night. From the river
came a voice crying out, "Don't shoot, I'm a black man." When
the boat came alongside the Monitor, a lone runaway slave
named Siah Carter was pulled onto the deck.
Carter was born and lived on Shirley
Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia. Carter told the
Monitor crew that his owner was a colonel in the Confederate
army and that he had escaped while his master was away. The
runaway was considered "contraband of war" by the Union sailors,
and on May 15, 1862, he was signed aboard the Monitor
as a first-class ship's boy. Carter's job was described as ship's
carpenter; he also was an assistant to the cook. Carter was
24 years old when he joined the Monitor's crew. He served
on the Monitor for seven months and survived the sinking
on December 31, 1862. He remained in the navy for the duration
of the war and was honorably discharged from service on May
19, 1865.
After his discharge, Carter married
a former slave from Shirley Plantation named Eliza Tarrow. Siah
and Eliza had 13 children and settled in Bermuda Hundred, Virginia.
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Life on the Monitor
Go to other documents in this category:
Daily Life of a Monitor Crewman -
George Geer
Biographies of Commanders of the
Monitor
Photo Identification of the
Officers of the Monitor, July 1862
Photo Identification of the
Crew of the Monitor, July 1862
Photo Identification of the Monitor,
July 1862
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