Book review: ‘Be Free or Die’ by Raleigh author Cate Lineberry, tells the true story of Robert Smalls, a slave who hijacked a paddle wheeler and steamed out of Charleston, S.C., to freedom.

Just when you think the store of Civil War stories has been exhausted, up pops another one.

On May 13, 1862, the all-black crew of the Confederate paddle wheeler Planter, along with a number of family members, hijacked their vessel in the dark of night and sailed it out of Charleston, S.C. to Union blockaders offshore.

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Such escapes were more common than one might think. On Sept. 21, 1862, William B. Gould and seven other slaves commandeered a sailboat on the Wilmington waterfront and sailed down the Cape Fear and out to Union vessels. Gould would go on to serve the rest of the war in the U.S. Navy. (His great-grandson later published Gould’s wartime journal in “Diary of a Contraband.”)