<p>Allow a few additional bites of info on the JPJones issue, notably re: Gen. Horace Porter. Porter was from a privileged family in Huntingdon, PA. His father later became a PA governor. Horace matriculated to Harvard, but received an appointment to, dare I say it, West Point, where he graduated 2nd in his class. He fought in the Civil War, became a close friend and later personal secretary to Ulysses Grant, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, later to become the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Many received this medal in the Civil War, even entire companies. Only later did it become the uniquely prestigious medal recognizing great heroism and awarded by Congress in light of highly specific rules and requirements.)</p>
<p>Porter became ambassador to France about 1898, I believe. While there he invested $30K of his own $$ to successfully locate and exhume Jones’ body. I believe it was U.S. military (soldiers or sailors??) from the USS Brooklyn that marched to Paris to retrieve the body and return it to the U.S. I’m not sure of this alleged fact, but was told this was the first military contingent to step on European soil. 
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<p>Porter was offered reimbursement by Congress for his expenses which in turn he offered to the U.S.Naval Academy with stipulation that Jones be buried in the under-construction USNA Chapel. </p>
<p>And now we know the REST of the story. That it took a WOOP to get the USN’s first great hero back where he belonged, and made a major financial gift in the process. </p>
<p>One must wonder as he wrote that monster check to the USNA if that West Pointer had finally learned, too late, the error of his choice those many years before … ;)</p>
<p>Anyone know if any other West Pointer has ever become a major philanthropist to Annapolis?</p>
<p>A FOOTNOTE: It is also believed that Porter was the 1st to wear the Medal of Honor on a lavaliere (sp?) as prior to that time the medal had been worn on the recipient’s chest. Apparently many European medals were worn about the neck, and the US military would have none of it. When Porter went to Eurpope though, well, when in Paris, do as the French might do … With Congress taking over it’s awarding, etc. it became the neck-worn medal we know today.</p>