From Confederate Victory to Black Union Hero: The Renaming of a Navy Ship.
The USS Chancellorsville has been renamed the USS Robert Smalls, in honor of the enslaved man who stole a Confederate battleship in the Civil War and delivered it to the Union forces, loaded with weapons. The U.S. Navy has renamed all the bases and warships that honor the Confederacy, including civil war generals who enslaved people and fought against the U.S. military. The newly christened USS Robert Smalls may be the most direct repudiation of that legacy.