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A guided-missile cruiser that was named after a Confederate Civil War victory will be renamed in honor of a former slave who stole a Confederate States Navy ship in South Carolina and delivered it to the Union, the Navy announced in a late Monday statement. USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) will be renamed after Robert Smalls, a former slave who was conscripted into Confederate service in 1862. The skilled navigator stole the steamer CSS Planter and escaped from Charleston on May 13, 1862, with his family, rescuing enslaved people and capturing military material. He turned the ship over to the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. guided-missile cruiser Chancellorsville, which was homeported in San Diego for many years, has been renamed Robert Smalls, honoring a Civil War-era maritime pilot who commandeered a Confederate ship in 1862 and turned it over to the Union forces. Smalls was born a slave and went on to become a mariner, a businessman, a publisher and a congressman who represented South Carolina, the state where he was born. The Navy decided to change the cruiser’s name because it was named after the Battle of Chancellorsville, a Confederate Civil War victory.

Vessel named for black Civil War hero (excerpted) Army's $25 million ship will help supply troops around the world The Associated Press The U.S. Army and VT Halter Marine on Wednesday christened a new supply ship in honor of a black Civil War hero. The MG Robert Smalls is a logistics support vessel. It is named in honor of Robert Smalls, who 142 years ago commandeered a Confederate steamer and turned it over to Union sailors blockading Charleston's harbor. It is the first Army vessel named for a Civil War hero and the first to bear the name of a...

The Army will name its newest transport ship for South Carolinian Robert Smalls, an African-American Civil War hero. The Major General Robert Smalls will be the first Army vessel to honor an African-American and a Civil War hero, the Army said Friday.The vessel, under construction at VT Halter Marine Inc. in Pascagoula, Miss., will be christened in April. The $25 million ship will be 314 feet long and 60 feet wide, and carry up to 2,000 tons.In April 1862, Smalls was a 23-year-old slave pilot when he commandeered a Confederate transport steamer, the Planter. Smalls sailed the ship, loaded with...