By Allan Wall
02/18/2023
The erasure of Confederate heritage (which is American heritage) continues. The U.S. Navy is part of it.
From the Navy Times:
The Navy has removed the name of a member of the Confederacy from a building on the U.S. Naval Academy’s campus and renamed the hall after former President and “Ring Knocker” Jimmy Carter. The building, constructed in the early 1900s, was originally named after Matthew Fontaine Maury, an oceanography pioneer — known as the “pathfinder of the seas” — who resigned his U.S. commission to serve in the Confederate States Navy. [Navy removes Confederate name from Naval Academy building, by By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Navy Times, February 17, 2023]
Matthew Fontaine Maury has been called the “Pathfinder of the Seas,” “Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology” and “Scientist of the Seas.” According to Wikipedia, “[Maury] published the Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, which showed sailors how to use the ocean’s currents and winds to their advantage, drastically reducing the length of ocean voyages. Maury’s uniform system of recording oceanographic data was adopted by navies and merchant marines around the world and was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes.”
So Maury is very important in the history of navigation, which ought to be important to the U.S. Navy.
But the Pathfinder of the Seas wasn’t woke enough for today’s Navy.
It doesn’t matter what Maury accomplished and how it benefited the world, because he served as an envoy of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The name change comes after Congress directed a naming commission to review military assets and rename those with Confederate ties following the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020.
For more on the Naming Commission click here and here.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accepted the commission’s recommendations in September and ordered the services to make the changes by the end of this year.
The newly minted Carter Hall houses the academy’s systems and weapons engineering department.
In addition to his role as the 39th U.S. president, Carter graduated from the academy in 1946 and spent seven years in service as a submarine officer.
“By naming this building in his honor, we not only recognize his great contributions, but ensure that his legacy will forever inspire our nation’s future leaders,” Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck said at the renaming ceremony, according to a Navy press release.
Renaming the hall is expected to cost the Navy $12,000, according to the naming commission’s report.
OK, name something after Carter, but why take Maury’s name off a building?
And there’s more …
That report also calls for the Navy to change the name of Buchanan House and Buchanan Road, two academy fixtures named in honor of Franklin Buchanan, the academy’s first superintendent who joined the Confederacy, rose to the rank of admiral and commanded several naval battles that killed hundreds of U.S. sailors.
The Navy has not announced the status of that renaming effort, and officials did not return a request for comment by Navy Times’ deadline Friday.
Both Naval Academy buildings were named after the traitors in 1915, when the “Lost Cause” notion propagated the idea that the Confederate effort was a righteous battle for the rights of southern states.
Approximately 25 percent of academy midshipmen joined and fought for the Confederacy in 1861, according to the commission report. The commission did not recommended a change to a column in Memorial Hall that lists academy graduates who died during naval operations in service to the Confederacy.
“The roll call simply states Confederate or U.S. service after the graduate’s name,” the commission report states. “Due to the limited factual nature of the roll call, the Commission believes it may remain as structured.”
There are ship names which the Naming Commission said had to be changed.
The commission also recommended renaming the guided-missile cruiser Chancellorsville, which is named after the location of a Confederate victory, as well as a ship named after Maury. The Navy has not provided further details on those efforts.