Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury (F. William Sievers was the sculptor
for this monument), is not as well known to the average citizen as he
deserves to be, but sailors on all the seas know his work and are
grateful for it. He is known as “The Pathfinder of the Seas” because he
charted the oceans with such accuracy that even today the Pilot Charts
issued by the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department are founded on
his researches. In the house which still stands close to the present
Valentine Museum, Maury, seeking ways that would enable his pathetically
small Confederate Navy to be effective against the Union gunboats,
invented the submarine electrical torpedo. ¶ _U-turn around the
monument; proceed eastward on Monument one block to Sheppard; right on
Sheppard three blocks to Kensington; proceed left on Kensington to the
Boulevard; turn right._
[Illustration: _Battle Abbey, Confederate Memorial Institute_]