McAllister's Battery Day And Artillery Weekend At Shiloh National Military Park

Demonstrations of cannon fire will be offered at Shiloh National Military Park this weekend/NPS file

Compiled From NPS New Releases
By National Parks Traveler - March 28th, 2023

The impact of 24-pound Howitzers that the Union Army deployed during the Battle of Shiloh will be discussed this coming weekend as Shiloh National Military Park marks the 161st anniversary of the battle.

“The Shiloh battle anniversary activities from April 1 through April 15 will be our first signature event for 2023, and we invite everyone to come out to the park and remember the epic battle and the Americans who fought here in 1862,” said Acting Park Superintendent Stacy Allen.

On Saturday, April 1, Shiloh will present McAllister’s Battery Day at the park. Battery D, of the 1st Illinois Light Artillery, was one of the most conspicuous Federal artillery units that participated in the Battle of Shiloh. Led by Captain Edward McAllister, the unit also had the singular distinction of being armed with 24-pounder Howitzers.

Historians will portray McAllister's battery and teach visitors about the unique 24-pounder Howitzers they used in the battle. The crew will display the drill, the movement, and the ammunition used on an original 24-pounder Howitzer from the Starkville Civil War Arsenal.

Park rangers will lead car caravan tours to McAllister’s Monument twice on Saturday. Participants will learn about actions of McAllister’s Battery during the battle of Shiloh. All kids who attend this program will receive a McAllister Civil War trading card.

Cannon firing demonstration will be provided by the Shiloh Cannon Crew firing a 6-pounder Field Piece on Saturday, April 1, and Sunday, April 2. Visitors will learn about the implements, projectiles, and tools cannoneers used during the Civil War. Everyone is invited to see and hear a cannon being fired on the battlefield 161 years after the battle. The presentations will be 20 minutes in length with the gun being fired twice during each demonstration.

Artillery Weekend - McAllister’s Battery Day Saturday, April 1

10 a.m. – Organization of McAllister’s Battery (at Howitzer)
(Hear about the birth of the battery and its service through the battle of Fort Donelson)

10:30 a.m. – Introduction to the 24-pounder Howitzer (at Howitzer)
(Learn about the cannon and its projectiles and see cannoneers maneuver the gun)

11 a.m. – Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece (demo area)
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

11:30 a.m. – Organization of McAllister’s Battery
(Hear about the birth of the battery and its service through the battle of Fort Donelson)

12 p.m. – Introduction to the 24-Pounder Howitzer
(Learn about the cannon and its projectiles and see cannoneers maneuver the gun)

12 p.m. – Car Caravan to McAllister’s Monument and talk “Action at Shiloh”
* Meet in front of the Visitor Center

12:30 p.m. – Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

1:30 p.m.– Organization of McAllister’s Battery
(Hear about the birth of the battery and its service through the battle of Fort Donelson)

2:00 p.m. – Introduction to the 24-pounder Howitzer
(Learn about the cannon and its projectiles and see cannoneers maneuver the gun)

2:30 pm – Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

3 p.m. – Organization of McAllister’s Battery
(Hear about the birth of the battery and its service through the battle of Fort Donelson)

3 p.m. – Car Caravan to McAllister’s Battery and talk “Action at Shiloh”
* Meet in front of the Visitor Center

3:30 pm – Introduction to the 24-pounder Howitzer
(Learn about the cannon and its projectiles and see cannoneers maneuver the gun)

4 p.m. - Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

Artillery Weekend Continued Sunday, April 2

11 a.m. – Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

1 p.m. - Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

2:30 p.m. – Firing the 6-pounder Field Piece
(Experience a firing demonstration by the Shiloh Cannon Crew)

Honoring Service Across Generations

Saturday, March 25, was Medal of Honor Day — marking the 160th anniversary of the first medals being awarded to Andrews’ Raiders, whose irregular operation exploits 200 miles behind Confederate lines were immortalized as The Great Locomotive Chase.  

Since then, a total of 3,516 men – and one woman – have been awarded the nation’s highest honor for valor, their individual citations describing an act far beyond the call of duty. When viewed collectively, as on a map, they tell a much broader story about the exceptional Americans who, generation after generation, have answered the nation’s call to service.  

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society's John Falkenbury and Medal of Honor recipient Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Pitts (Ret.) were among the first to interact with the new display at the Medal of Honor Museum at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.

Few Americans can visit Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir or the mountains of Afghanistan, but the American Battlefield Trust and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society are committed to marrying history with the latest technology to allow anyone to get to know these patriots. We’ve teamed up through the Medal of Honor Valor Trail™ initiative to place a first-of-its-kind interactive exhibit at the Medal of Honor Museum at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, outside Charleston, S.C., allowing visitors to explore these places of valor around the globe – and the warriors who hallowed that ground with their exceptional actions.

Exciting in its own right, the new exhibit is also the precursor to a broader reimagining of the Society’s Medal of Honor Museum in the coming years, thanks to a major leadership gift from the Medal of Honor Leadership and Education Center announced last week. We are thrilled to be part of this dynamic and forward-thinking museum community and hope you will pay the exhibit a visit, should you find yourself in Charleston!  

More than 20 Medal of Honor recipients came to Washington, D.C., to mark the anniversary with a special wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Trust leadership and staff were honored to join that august group as special guests, including at a welcome luncheon.

Medal of Honor Day Events

During an evening dinner ceremony, the Society presented six ordinary Americans with its 2023 Citizen Honors Awards, demonstrating that the values inherent in the Medal of Honor — courage, commitment, integrity, sacrifice, citizenship and patriotism — can be embodied by each of us. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

Medal of Honor Recipient and Congressional Medal of Honor Society President Leroy Petry commented, “Ordinary people do extraordinary things. There are inspiring acts of service, sacrifice and heroism happening every day all over our country. Service and sacrifice don’t require wearing a military uniform.”

Eisenhower NHS - Spring/Summer 2023 Hours of Operation

News Release Date: March 16, 2023
Contact: Jason Martz

GETTYSBURG, PA – Eisenhower National Historic Site is pleased to announce that tours of the Eisenhower home will resume on Saturday, April 1, 2023, for the Spring and Summer season. Individuals, families, and groups with fewer than 20 people can now drive directly to the site.

April Tours of the Eisenhower Home

• House tours will be offered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

• Tour times will be at 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, and 2 pm.

May Tours of the Eisenhower Home

• House tours will be offered Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

• Tour times will be at 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, and 2 pm.

• Special Memorial Day tours will be available on Monday, May 29.

June 1 to August 13 Tours of the Eisenhower Home

• House tours will be offered Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

• Tour times will be at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, and 3:30 pm.

June 1 to August 13 - Free Ranger led programs

• Free Ranger led programs will be offered Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

• Tours of the grounds will begin at 9:30 am and last approximately 45 minutes. Tours begin near the gravel parking lot.

New for 2023: Individuals, families, and groups with fewer than 20 people are no longer required to make advanced reservations or take a shuttle bus to the site. Visitors may now drive directly to the farm. Access is via the Emmitsburg Road at 250 Eisenhower Farm Lane, Gettysburg, PA. General visitor parking and accessible parking is available. Once onsite, please follow directions to the appropriate parking area.

All tours of the Eisenhower home will be offered on a first come, first served basis to the first 40 visitors during each time slot.

Groups with 20 or more individuals should contact visitor services at 877-874-2478.

Note: Due to tight turns and cattle guards, no oversized vehicles (RVs, campers, trailers, coach buses, etc.) are permitted on site.

The grounds of Eisenhower National Historic Site are open daily throughout the year from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.

Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves and interprets the home and farms of the Eisenhower family as a fitting and enduring memorial to the life, work, and times of General Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, and to the events of far-reaching importance that occurred on the property. Learn more at www.nps.gov/eise.

New Parking Measures at Gettysburg Visitor Center

News Release Date: March 14, 2023
Contact: Jason Martz

GETTYSBURG, PA. – Gettysburg National Military Park (NMP) announces new parking measures will take effect at the Museum and Visitor Center on April 1, 2023. These measures are necessary due to the ongoing road construction on Visitor Center Drive from Taneytown Road to the Visitor Center.

NOTE: Parking staff will be onsite to direct visitors to the closest available parking area at the time of their arrival.

Visitors will proceed to the next available parking lot, depending on weather conditions. Please see attached map for more details.If recent, and current, weather conditions have been DRY, visitors will follow these directions:
 

1. Visitors will be able to park in the main Museum and Visitor Center parking lot. This lot is referred to as Lot

2. When Lot 1 fills up, visitors will be directed to the adjacent Bus parking lot (Lot 2).

3. When the Bus parking lot (Lot 2) fills up, visitors will be directed to the grass lots at the corner of Hunt Avenue and Taneytown Road (Lot 3a) and along Taneytown Road (Lot 3b). Visitors will be able to access the Museum and Visitor Center via the walking path that begins at the corner of Hunt Avenue and Taneytown Road.

4. When the two grass lots fill up, visitors will be directed to park at the Gettysburg National Cemetery parking lot (Lot 4) along Taneytown Road. Visitors will be able to access the Museum and Visitor Center via the walking path that connects the National Cemetery parking lot to the walking path that begins at the corner of Hunt Avenue and Taneytown Road.

5. When the Gettysburg National Cemetery parking lot (Lot 4) fills up, visitors will be encouraged to park along the entire stretch of Hancock Avenue from the Pennsylvania Memorial to the Gettysburg National Cemetery parking lot. Visitors will be able to access the Museum and Visitor Center via the walking path that connects Hancock Avenue near the High Water Mark, Auto Tour Stop 16, down the ridge to the Lydia Lyster house, to the walking path that begins at the corner of Hunt Avenue and Taneytown Road.

A free shuttle bus will run between the Museum and Visitor Center, the Hunt Avenue grass lot (Lot 3a), the Gettysburg National Cemetery parking lots (Lot 4), and back to the Museum and Visitor Center. The shuttle will operate on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm ONLY. During wet conditions, the shuttle will bypass Lot 3a along Hunt Avenue. 

If recent, and current, weather conditions have been WET, ONLY paved parking areas will be available, to include Lots 1, 2, 4, and Hancock Avenue.

These parking measures will continue until the Visitor Center Drive construction project from Taneytown Road to the Visitor Center is completed this summer.

Ken Burns Gets Taste of the Gettysburg Battle He Chronicled

Washington Post
Michael Ruane
March 11, 2023

GETTYSBURG, Pa.
Filmmaker Ken Burns sits at a small table in a shuttered dining room built to re-create the evening of July 1, 1863. Two whale oil lamps cast a dim light. The floor boards shake from the sound of artillery outside.

A coffee cup is overturned on the table. Flashes of light from explosions come through the shutters and illuminate the dark.

It is the close of the first day of the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg, and public television’s renowned student of the war has come to imagine what it was like, not for the soldiers, but for the terrified residents as the conflict raged around them.

The location was the Adams County Historical Society’s new state-of-the-art museum that focuses on the experience of people as bullets flew through homes, buried themselves in mirror frames and bedsteads, and in one case killed a young woman while she was making bread.

Called the Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum, it is located at a spot north of town where the Confederate army overran Union forces and stormed into Gettysburg on the first day of the three-day battle…

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Confederate General from Pennsylvania

WFMZ - History’s Headlines
by Frank Whelan (CWRT Board Member)

Wednesday, August 14, 1907, was cooler than most summer days in New York. Newspaper headlines shouted of a stock market crash, a strike by telegraph workers, and a friendly meeting between England’s King Edward VII and his cousin, Germany’s Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, on their yachts. That same day Georgia’s state legislature passed an election law which was written in such a way that would virtually deny the state’s Black citizens the right to vote. The governor announced he would sign it as soon as it got to his desk.

But for residents of 226 West 78th Street the day was marked by a personal tragedy, the death of 82-year-old Martha “Pattie” Thompson Pemberton. Since the death of her husband, Confederate General John C. Pemberton, in 1881, Mrs. Pemberton had lived at the Manhattan home of her daughter, Mrs. Patricia Pemberton Berman, and her stockbroker husband. Although an invalid for the previous eight years, Mrs. Pemberton’s end had come suddenly. The brief obituary noted the funeral would take place on August 16th at Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery where she would be interred beside her husband. The train carrying her remains was scheduled to arrive at the city’s Broad Street Station at 3:10 that afternoon.

For a brief time in the early 1870s, the Pembertons had lived in the Lehigh Valley. At that time, the Allentown Iron Works was a booming, bustling, smoky place where pillars of flame rose against the night sky. It was said that it was possible to read a newspaper at 3:00 a.m. by the reflection they cast. But during the daylight hours it may have been a particular employee- a clerk that held himself with a military bearing- that would have drawn a visitor’s attention. With a full beard and wearing a black coat, he could be seen counting the rows of pig iron as they piled up in the yard. He would then go into the office and write up a report.

His name was John C. Pemberton and he hailed from an old Philadelphia family whose roots went back to the colonial era. He had graduated from West Point, served bravely in the Mexican War, and appeared to be on his way to being recognized as one of the distinguished soldiers in the U.S. Army. But he had made a fateful decision in 1861 and joined the Confederate cause. It was a path that led him to the command of Vicksburg, among the most important positions the rebel government had to offer. Its surrender after a prolonged siege to Ulysses Grant in 1863 made Pemberton a pariah in the South. Now regarded as a traitor in both North and South, the conflict’s end found him and his family for a time in Allentown.

Aloof and formal by his own admission with an argumentative temperament, Pemberton was not a good mixer. His idea of relaxing was reading, in the original Latin, the Aeneid, an epic poem by Virgil, the Roman poet’s tale of the Trojan warrior Aeneas who flees the burning city of Troy and, according to a legend, founded what becomes the Roman Empire. Local Union Civil War veterans recalled later that Pemberton was somewhat, as they put it, “a mite touchy,” when they tried to argue about the war. But they also recalled he always gave as good as he got when the subject came up. General Harry C. Trexler, then a young boy with a passion for Civil War history, recalled to associates seeing Pemberton and his family as they went to services at the city’s Grace Episcopal Church.

John Clifford Pemberton (1814-1881) was born into one of first families of Philadelphia that arrived roughly at the same time as William Penn. They held significant positions in the early government in the 17th century in Bucks County when it was created by Penn. Both Northampton County and later Lehigh County were formed out of the original Bucks County. In the 18th century Israel Pemberton, a Philadelphia merchant, was dubbed “King of the Quakers” due to his significant role in the political life of the colony. His support for Native Americans put him at odds with Thomas Penn, William Penn’s son and proprietor of the colony.

Pemberton’s father, also a John Pemberton, having fought in the War of 1812, apparently did not take his Quaker vow of pacifism terribly seriously. During that war Pemberton’s father got to know Andrew Jackson. It was through this link, in 1833, when Jackson was president, that Pemberton’s son was admitted to West Point. Pemberton was not the best student, and he got demerits for being something of a hell-raiser. His roommate was George Gordon Meade, a fellow Philadelphian who would later command the Union forces at Gettysburg.

According to one source his interests were primarily in the humanities rather than mathematics. Pemberton graduated 27th in a class of 50. His low grades kept him from being admitted to the prestigious engineer corps. But his father’s influence was able to get him a commission in the Fourth Artillery. As a young officer first in the Seminole War in Florida and later in the Mexican War, Pemberton did not shrink from dangerous assignments. But he was more comfortable in staff positions than he was in the field. “Pemberton had a knack for getting in the graces of high-ranking officers,” notes one source, “and staff duties seemed better fitted for his abilities than theater actions… he was no coward, but he developed a preference for duties.”

In contrast to his West Point days, Pemberton became something of a spit and polish soldier, a martinet who did not like being contradicted. In one instance while serving in Michigan one corporal with whom he was having an argument tried to shoot him. Writing to his mother Pemberton observed, “I cannot always bear reproach though I deserve it.”

Pemberton did not seem to take an active position on the growing north / south direction the country was taking. He apparently felt that as an army officer, slavery was not an issue on which he needed to take sides. But an influence that forced him to decide was his marriage in 1848 to Martha (Pattie) Thompson of Norfolk, Virginia. Her father owned a shipping business and also several slaves. As a wedding present he gave the couple a Black female slave to act as a cook. Their household also included two white servants. To avoid controversy Pemberton refused to allow the cook to travel with them when they went north of the Mason Dixon line. Pemberton and his wife were said to have five children, three of whom (Patricia, John Clifford and Francis Rawle) survived into adulthood. All three are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery with their parents.

With the outbreak of the war his wife, a strong supporter of the South, insisted that he join the Confederate army. “Why do you delay? Jeff Davis has a commission just waiting for you,” she is said to have repeated. Historians doubt if this was indeed the case. Pemberton’s family in Philadelphia pleaded with him not to do it. But finally, they recognized that his love for his wife was stronger than anything they could say.

Pemberton was not welcomed with open arms. Confederates at once suspected him of not being a true believer in the cause. But as was his nature he soon attracted the attention of patrons, the most influential of which was the president of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis found something to like in…
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Visiting Monocacy National Battlefield by Emerging Civil War Weekender

by Patrick Kelly-Fischer

Posted on March 10, 2023

By the summer of 1864, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was largely pinned down around Richmond and Petersburg. With little room to maneuver, a fragile supply situation, and a deteriorating Confederate position in the Western Theater, Lee understood that he needed to change the fundamental dynamic of the strategic situation in Virginia.

With that in mind, he turned to Lt. Gen. Jubal Early and his Second Corps, which had already cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Union forces. Throughout the war, the Lincoln administration had been sensitive to any Confederate threat to the nation’s capital. Lee and Stonewall Jackson expertly took advantage of this in 1862, and now the Confederate leadership hoped to repeat that feat. 

In July, Early crossed the Potomac River with roughly 15,000 Confederate troops. At a minimum, he expected to draw Union forces away from Petersburg. At best, he hoped that a major Confederate victory near the capital, or even a temporary occupation of Washington, D.C., could deal a body blow to the Union war effort. Northern morale was already flagging in the face of massive casualty lists. With the presidential election just around the corner, and the specter of foreign intervention never too far off, the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

Grant had stripped Maryland and Washington of almost all Federal troops in order to fuel his Overland Campaign and the siege at Petersburg. Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace – effectively in exile after Shiloh – took the first rumors of Early’s advance seriously, and pulled together a scratch force of defenders. Reinforced by Ricketts’ division of the VI Corps, he drew up a line of defense behind the Monocacy River, just outside Frederick, and along Early’s route to either Washington or Baltimore.

Despite being outnumbered almost three to one, Union soldiers stubbornly held on for most of the day. Their positions defending the main bridges across the river were too strong to be attacked head-on. Once Early found a ford downstream and flanked the Union positions, Wallace’s men continued to fight until late in the afternoon, before eventually being forced to retreat.

The approximate location of the Worthington Ford, along the Ford Loop Trail, where Confederate troops were able to turn the flank oif the Union position. Photo by author, who was not bold enough to investigate whether the river was fordable that day.

While Monocacy was a tactical defeat, Wallace’s troops had bought precious time. Early resumed his advance on Washington, but wasn’t able to attack before the remainder of the Union VI Corps arrived. After some skirmishing around Fort Stevens – the only time a sitting U.S. President has come under fire – Early recognized that he had missed his opportunity, and withdrew to Virginia.

For me, one of the great what-ifs of the Civil War will always be: What if Early hadn’t lost a day at Monocacy? So when I found myself passing through Maryland last month, I made a point of leaving enough time to visit the battlefield. 

The Worthington House stands on a hill overlooking the ford on one side, and the fields that formed the Union defensive lines on the other. Only six years old, Glenn Worthington observed some of the fighting while hiding in the cellar. He went on to write one of the first accounts of the battle. Photo by author.

The battlefield is remarkably well preserved, despite being right on the outskirts of Frederick. It was largely empty on the unseasonably warm February day that I visited. While I’d like for all of these sites to be visited by more people, I didn’t hate the feeling that I had the whole place to myself. 

It’s also a battlefield where you can get a full experience in just part of a day. 3 or 4 hours was enough time to tour the visitor center’s museum (including a helpful electronic map), do the audio tour, and hike a couple of the trails. The Ford Loop Trail gave me a particularly good sense of a critical part of that battlefield that wasn’t visible from the audio tour stops. The Gambrill Mill trail provides a great view of the bridges that formed the initial focal point of Wallace’s defense.

The battlefield is relevant to the Antietam campaign as well. The Best Farm, now part of the Monocacy National Battlefield, is where Union troops found the famous Lost Order in September 1862. The farm also serves as a window into the history of slavery in the area. 

If you’d like to learn more about the battle of Monocacy, there are several other posts on Emerging Civil War. It’s also the topic of the 2017 Emerging Civil War series book by Ryan Quint, Determined to Stand and Fight. For additional reading, I’d recommend Desperate Engagement by Marc Leepsen.

2023 David Wills House Museum Hours of Operation

Beginning April 7, 2023, the historic David Wills House will reopen, free of charge, Friday to Sunday, from 1 pm to 5 pm. Effective June 17, 2023, operations will expand to Thursday to Sunday, from 1 pm to 5 pm. Effective August 18, 2023, operations will return to operating Friday to Sunday, from 1 pm to 5 pm. The final day of operations for 2023 will be on November 19, 2023, the 160th Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. National Park Service Rangers will staff the home with support from Main Street Gettysburg.

The three-story brick house at 8 Lincoln Square was the home of David and Catherine Wills before, during, and after the Battle of Gettysburg. President Abraham Lincoln was one of their house guests the night before the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Lincoln finished composing his Gettysburg Address in the second story bedroom the evening of November 18, 1863. This historic home features two re-created rooms – Wills’ law office, and the bedroom where Lincoln spent the evening – as well as two short films, a computer interactive on the Gettysburg Address, a diorama of the two-block radius surrounding the home, and virtual identity cards to gain further insight and perspectives into the aftermath of the largest battle on American soil.

“The David Wills House should be a part of any visit to Gettysburg. The National Park Service is excited to welcome visitors in the heart of downtown Gettysburg and to introduce the amazing story behind this historic home.” said Steve Sims, superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park. “The David Wills House exhibits provide an opportunity to learn about the Wills family and reflect on the meaning of Gettysburg, the aftermath of the battle, and the legacy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.”

The David Wills House is part of Gettysburg National Military Park. Gettysburg National Military Park is a unit of the National Park Service that preserves and protects the resources associated with the Battle of Gettysburg, the Gettysburg National Cemetery and provides an understanding of the events that occurred there within the context of American history. Visit our website for more details: https://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/david-wills-house.htm.  

USS Chancellorsville’s Name Shift and the US Navy’s History of Confederate-Named Vessels

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.

Updated Hours Now in Effect for Gettysburg NMP Museum and Visitor Center

Spring and summer hours are now in effect for the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center.

The Museum & Visitor Center will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. beginning today, March 1, 2023.