Kiwanis Club of Staunton Host Their 89th Annual Lee-Jackson Day

by Michael Roman

On Monday, January 31st the Kiwanis Club of Staunton hosted their 89th annual Lee-Jackson Day luncheon. This year their speaker was Col. Keith Gibson, Executive Director of the VMI Museum and the VMI New Market Battlefield Park.  His topic was: Matthew Fontaine Maury.

Matthew Fontaine Maury, nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas," made important contributions to charting wind and ocean currents. In 1825 at age 19, he joined the United States Navy as a midshipman on board the frigate Brandywine. Almost immediately he began to study the seas and record methods of navigation. His studies proved that by following the winds and currents ships could cross the ocean in fewer days than ever before.  His hard work on and love of plotting the oceans paid off when he became Superintendent of the Naval Observatory and head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments.

On April 20, 1861, three days after Virginia seceded from the Union, Maury resigned from the United States Navy.  Several days later, he accepted the position of commander in the Confederate States Navy.  Because of his international fame, he was sent to England as a spokesperson for the Confederate government and the Southern cause. During the Civil War, Maury was successful in acquiring war vessels for the Confederacy and in the progress he made in harbor defense, experimenting with electrical mines. Following the war, Maury accepted a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. He died at his home in Lexington on February 1, 1873 and was temporarily buried in Lexington.  Maury's body was then moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, where it remains today.

Tom Bell introducing the speaker.

Col. Keith Gibson and club president Priscilla Stanley.