The U.S. Navy is unlikely to change the name of guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Chancellorsville, a Navy official told Navy Times Wednesday.
The ship is named to commemorate the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville during the American civil war, where Confederate General Robert E. Lee trounced an opposing Union Army nearly double the size of his own force.
The official reasoned that the ship commemorates a battle where both Confederate and Union soldiers died and does not specifically venerate either side. An image celebrating the ship on its website however prominently features Lee and Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.
Screengrab/USS Chancellorsville
The Navy’s comments follow widespread discussion throughout the U.S. about the role of Confederate statues on public property and a racially charged riot Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Army Times similarly revealed Wednesday it does not plan to change the name of 10 different U.S. Army installations are named for Confederate Generals. “The Army posts named for Confederates are Fort Lee, Fort Hood, Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Fort Bragg, Fort Polk, Fort Pickett, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Rucker and Camp Beauregard,” the story reads.
“Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history,” Army Brig. Gen. Malcolm Frost said in a 2015 statement saying there were no plans to rename the installations recalled by McClatchy. “Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies.”
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