FCWRT_logo.2
By David Walsh

STAFF REPORTS

On Sunday, Aug. 11, the Franklin Civil War Round Table will meet to discuss Civil War Cmrd. Matthew Fontaine Maury, who lived in Franklin “during his formative years,” according to a release. He was the cousin of Abram Maury, Franklin’s founder.

The release says at the start of the Civil War, Maury left the U.S. Navy and was initially named Chief of Sea Coast, River and Harbor Defenses, for the Confederate States Navy.

From the release:

Because of his fame as an author and explorer charting the world’s oceans and seas, he was sent to England and France as a chief agent in the Confederate Secret Service. One of his best known books was The Physical Geography of the Sea, known as the first full work on oceanography.

Maury, who lived in Franklin during his formative years, worked in the shadows procuring ships for the CSA and as an unofficial Confederate diplomat. He was also a cousin of Abram Maury, Franklin, Tennessee’s founder.

Over the last 10 years, Franklin’s Chip Hooper has amassed the largest private collection of Commander Maury’s papers known which he calls “The Pathfinder Papers.” At the August 11th Franklin Civil War Round Table event, Hooper will discuss Maury’s role abroad and will for the first time, share some of his findings from these papers while introducing original letters and documents to the audience.

A Middle Tennessee native, Chip Hooper’s great grandfather, Captain Thomas J. Carothers, served in Company H of the 20th Tennessee Infantry and was severely wounded at the November 1864, Battle of Franklin. Hooper has served on the Boards of the Battle of Franklin Trust, The Historic Franklin Masonic Hall Foundation and the Maury County Historical Society and recently received a research grant from The College of William and Mary.

This presentation begins at 3 p.m. at Carnton’s Fleming Center in Franklin.