Neil P. Chatelain, Mar 2, 2023
Emerging Civil War
USS Chancellorsville, photographed in 1989. (Naval History and Heritage Command)
In recent years, the US government ordered all service branches to investigate and collate listings of all installations named honoring Confederate leaders, symbols, or events. While many are familiar with the army bases named after Confederate leaders (Forts Bragg, Polk, and A.P. Hill for example), less known are warships that have previously or currently bear Confederate-related names. On February 27, 2023, the US Navy announced that it was renaming one of its guided missile cruisers, USS Chancellorsville (CG 62).[1]
Named after the 1863 battle of Chancellorsville, the cruiser was first commissioned in 1989. Having a cruiser named to honor a Civil War engagement is not unusual. Most cruisers in the US Navy have historically been named after battles, and there are also currently USS Shiloh, USS Antietam, USS Vicksburg and USS Gettysburg in the navy’s order of battle (USS Port Royal was decommissioned in 2022). But Chancellorsville is not named for a Confederate leader, so why the change?
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro released a statement that Chancellorsville’s renaming is deliberate to “remove the focus on the parts of our history that don’t align with the tenets of this country, and instead allows us to highlight the events and people who may have been overlooked.”[2]
The battle of Chancellorsville is largely considered Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s most significant victory, highlighting his military expertise. It is also the battle where his trusted lieutenant, ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, fell mortally wounded. Many might not see any issue with having a warship named for a Civil War battle, but diving a little deeper, it becomes apparent why USS Chancellorsville is getting its name changed.
Chancellorsville is one of the few warships currently in the US Navy’s order of battle named for a battle the United States lost. Other warships named for battles lost by the US include USS Bunker Hill, USS Bataan, USS Germantown, and USS Pearl Harbor. There is a distinct difference between these and Chancellorsville, however. All of the other battles, though the United States may have lost the engagement, served as rallying points for the military, civilian, and international communities. Chancellorsville is a battle which only inspired the Confederacy, so renaming the warship based on that warrants serious consideration.
For another, USS Chancellorsville has history honoring Confederate leadership. The ship’s motto “Press On” is something ‘Stonewall Jackson’ is said to have yelled during the namesake battle. The ship’s crest also has a gold wreath, turned upside down, supposedly to commemorate Jackson’s wounding at the battle.[3]
Chancellorsville is not the only US Navy ship whose name might soon be changed. There is also USNS Maury, an oceanographic survey ship operated by the Military Sealift Command named in honor of scientist – and Confederate naval officer – Matthew Fontaine Maury. The same naming commission also recommended renaming a street at the US Naval Academy bearing Maury’s name, as well as a road and building named for the academy’s first superintendent, Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan. To date, the Navy has only announced formally what Chancellorsville will be renamed to, with decisions and new names pending for the rest.[4]
Buchanan House, named for Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan, the first superintendent of the US Naval Academy. (Library of Congress)
The Department of Defense has issued a deadline of the end of 2023 for all renaming action to be taken, and if this deadline sticks, Chancellorsville will be but the first of many renaming announcements this year.
Because of the nature of ships being commissioned and decommissioned over time, the US Navy has significantly fewer installations and ships bearing connections to the Confederacy compared to the US Army’s plethora of forts. However, the Navy historically had many warships named to honor Confederates. Even in the Civil War, there were warships named for Confederate officers, though these were generally Confederate vessels captured and impressed into US service. USS General Bragg serves as a good example. Part of the Confederacy’s River Defense Fleet, it was captured at the battle of Memphis and later commissioned as a US Navy gunboat.
During World War I, the Navy had four Wickes-class destroyers named for Confederate naval officers: USS Maury (DD 100, Matthew Fontaine Maury), USS Tattnall (DD 125, Josiah Tattnall), USS Buchanan (DD 131, Franklin Buchanan), and USS Ingraham (DD 111, Duncan Ingraham). In World War II, there were two more USS Maury warships named for the oceanographer (AGS 16 and DD 401), and two more USS Ingraham warships named for Duncan Ingraham (DD 444 and DD 694). Other WWII-era warships named for Confederate officers include another USS Buchanan (DD 484) and USS Semmes (DD 189), named to honor Confederate Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes.
Another large concentration of US Navy warships named for the Confederacy occurred near the war’s centennial. At that time, there was another USS Semmes (DDG 18), and another USS Buchanan (DDG 14). There was also the submarines USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN 601) and USS Stonewall Jackson (SSBN 634). Supporting these submarines and others were the submarine tenders USS Hunley (AS 31, named for the Confederate submersible) and USS Dixon (AS 37, named for Confederate Lieutenant George Dixon who commanded Hunley). Besides these, there was also USS Brooke (FFG 1, named for Confederate Commander John M. Brooke), USS Richard L. Page (FFG 5, named for Confederate Captain Richard L. Page), and USS Waddell (DDG 24, named for Confederate Lieutenant James I. Waddell).
Clearly, the US Navy has a lengthy history of naming its warships to honor Confederate leaders, symbols, or activity, just as it has a large history of likewise honoring US actions in the Civil War as well. There have been three USS Gettysburg warships through the years and there is also a US Military Sealift Command vessel currently named USNS John Ericsson, for example. It is only because of the decommissioning of aging warships that the Navy’s current list of vessels only includes two related to the Confederacy.
There was no announced timeline on when Chancellorsville’s name will officially change, but the Navy has announced what its new name will be: Robert Smalls. In fact, the ship’s official website already lists itself as USS Robert Smalls. The formerly enslaved man was impressed as a pilot for the Confederate steamer Planter, commandeered that ship and guided it to US lines, served as a US Navy coast pilot, and later became a leader in the postwar South Carolina militia and member of Congress.[5] As a Navy veteran myself, I can attest that Smalls’s accomplishments are quite worthy of commemoration through a warship’s name. He serves as an inspiration for many. I even keep a poster of his accomplishments on my classroom wall.
Robert Smalls (Harper's Weekly, June 14, 1862)
Ironically, the US Army has already honored Smalls with a vessel of their own. USAV Major General Robert Smalls (LSV 8) is roll-on/roll-off military transport capable of carrying fifteen M1 Abrams tanks or dozens of cargo containers. Commissioned in 2007, it remains in the Army’s flotilla of operational support craft and is named honoring Smalls’s “service in the militia” of South Carolina after the Civil War.[6]
USAV Major General Robert Smalls remains an operational US Army transport vessel. (US Army photo 2007-09-17-056816)
If USS Chancellorsville had been named for another Confederate victory that galvanized US action or inspired the country to fight (maybe such as Fort Sumter or Monocacy) then perhaps its name might have remained. However, since it is named for the quintessential Confederate military victory, it will be changed. With many other Navy ships honoring Civil War battles, this change is not erasing the Navy’s attempts to commemorate the Civil War. Other battles remain with ships named after them and even after being renamed, Chancellorsville is still going to bear a name related to the conflict. My only complaint for the choice is that Chancellorsville is nearing the end of its operational life and will only bear the name Robert Smalls for a handful of years. I would argue that the slave-turned-Congressman deserves a ship that will remain operational for decades.
Endnotes:
[1] Geoff Ziezulewicz, “Navy to change name of warship honoring Confederate battle victory”, Navy Times, February 27, 2023, https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2023/02/28/navy-to-change-name-of-warship-honoring-confederate-battle-victory/, accessed March 1, 2023.
[2] “SECNAV Renamed Ticonderoga-class Guided Missile Cruiser USS Chancellorsville After Robert Smalls, US Navy Press Release, February 27, 2023, https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/3312337/secnav-renames-ticonderoga-class-guided-missile-cruiser-uss-chancellorsville-af/, accessed March 1, 2023.
[3] Sam Lagrone and Heather Mongilo, “Commission Recommends Renaming Two Navy Ships with Confederate Ties”, USNI News, September 13, 2022, https://news.usni.org/2022/09/13/commission-recommends-renaming-two-navy-ships-with-confederate-ties, accessed March 1, 2023.
[4] Fellow Emerging Civil War Navy Writer Dwight Hughes previously discussed these names at the Naval Academy: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2020/07/11/whats-in-a-confederate-name/.
[5] Smalls’s exploits have been documented by Emerging Civil War previously: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2022/02/01/robert-smalls-and-the-daring-capture-of-planter/.
[6] Steve Harding, “Latest Army Vessel Honors Black American Hero”, Army.mil, https://www.army.mil/article/4877/latest_army_vessel_honors_black_american_hero, accessed March 1, 2023.
