Trump Restores Confederate Names to Army Bases
But Not Really (Wink Wink)
Back in February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth restored the Fort Bragg name to the famed North Carolina Army base, albeit ostensibly after Silver Star recipient Roland Bragg rather than original namesake Braxton Bragg, an infamous Confederate. Shortly thereafter, he applied a similar maneuver to the Columbus, Georgia base that had been briefly renamed to honor Vietnam legend Hal Moore and his wife Julia, bringing back Fort Benning with, you guessed it, a different Benning as the ostensible honoree.
Now, President Donald Trump is doing this on a wholesale basis.
NYT (“Trump Says Army Bases Will Revert to Confederate Names“):
President Trump, during a speech at Fort Bragg, N.C., said on Tuesday that he would restore the names of all Army bases that were named for Confederate generals but were ordered changed by Congress in the waning days of his first administration.
His move skirts the law mandating the removal of Confederate symbols from the military through the same maneuver used to restore the name of Fort Bragg, which was briefly renamed Fort Liberty. In a statement, the Army said it would “take immediate action” to restore the old names of the bases originally honoring Confederates, but the base names would instead honor other American soldiers with similar names and initials.
For example, Fort Eisenhower in Georgia, honoring President Dwight D. Eisenhower — who led the D-Day landings during World War II — would revert to the name Fort Gordon, once honoring John Brown Gordon, the Confederate slave owner and suspected Ku Klux Klan member. This time around, however, the Army said the base would instead honor Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, who fought in the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia.
Mr. Trump, however, contradicted that explanation in his announcement, at one point saying that the Army would be “restoring” the name of one Army base in Virginia — Fort Gregg-Adams — to “Fort Robert E. Lee,” previously named for the commander of the Confederate army. The Army said in its statement that the base would be renamed to honor Pvt. Fitz Lee, a member of the all-Black Buffalo Soldiers who was awarded a Medal of Honor after serving in the Spanish-American War.
Mr. Trump made the announcement as he took a victory lap for the renaming of the Army installation at Fort Bragg, N.C., which had been originally named for Braxton Bragg, the Confederate general. Fort Bragg was renamed to Fort Liberty after Congress moved to strip the base of its Confederate name in 2020, mandating a new one.
“Can you believe they changed that name in the last administration for a little bit?” Mr. Trump asked, as soldiers in the crowd loudly booed. “Fort Bragg is in. That’s the name. And Fort Bragg it shall always remain. That’s never going to be happening again.”
Steven Taylor has already addressed the civil-military relations issues of politicizing the military in this way.
As I’ve noted many times as this issue has unfolded over the years, few of us gave much thought to the naming of these bases until recently. Most of the figures have long since been forgotten. Even the likes of Leonard Wood, who was a legendary officer in his time, have faded into obscurity despite a Missouri base being named after him. Folks who had been assigned to “Fort Bragg,” “Fort Benning,” “Fort Rucker,” “Fort Hood” and the like simply think of a base, not the person for whom it was named.
Despite their being Medal of Honor recipients, I had never heard of MSG Gordon or PFC Lee until this morning. But, of course, no one will call the bases “Fort Gary Gordon” or “Fort Fitz Lee.” And, in the latter case, most will do what Trump did and naturally associate the latter with Robert E. Lee.
“Fort Liberty” was an abomination and some of the figures chosen for the new names were obscure. But it’s a shame to lose Fort Eisenhower and Fort Moore. They’re American soldiers well deserving of the honor and people were quickly getting used to the new names. Over time, people would no longer have needed to translate (Which one is Novosel? The one that used to be Rucker?).
Just in passing, I recall my late father telling me long ago that the forts were named after Confederate notables as a sop to the south for having been beaten so badly in the Civil War.
I posted this on Steven’s thread, but reposting it here because it still applies:
So, regardless of the technicality, the President still wants to celebrate someone who chose to fight against the United States in order to ultimately maintain the right to maintain race-based chattle slavery and then, lost the same war to the United States.
Leonard Wood is an excellent example of the mixed messages that come with naming bases after legends of the day. For a different take on General Wood, you might consider what his fellow Missourian, Mark Twain, had to say about him in his “Comments on the Moro Massacre.”
@CSK:
I’ve always heard it was that the big bases were going to be in the South, the federal government was going to buy up large amounts of farmland and evict the farmers, and they needed a bunch of Southern Senators to be on board.
Such practices haven’t entirely gone away. The US Army is no longer actively trying to take a Massachusetts-sized chunk of Colorado to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site for tank training, but they were still working on it into this century. One of the few good things to come out of the Russia-Ukraine war — taking a strictly parochial view here — is the Army is much harder put to explain where they will ever see their tanks running free through the sort of open terrain they were trying to get in Colorado.
The South keeps winning the Civil War
Sort of ‘just kidding’ …
Everybody has one or more favorites. Ft. Eisenhower (just a few miles from my house) and Ft. Moore are mine. In a recent conversation with a retired Army officer with whom I worked in the past, and a man who clings to the traditional names of those posts, he made an exception for Ft. Cavazos, under whom he served.
The idea of naming military bases after people who killed American GI’s is repugnant. What’s next: Fort Bin Laden?
Naming bases after Roland Bragg and Fitz Lee is exactly the sort of thing that has made me say I do not want the government run by people who think, “Let’s go Brandon” is clever.
A dumb-ass racist who thinks they are being clever is somehow worse than just a plain dumb-ass racist.
Biggest mistake was not renaming the bases to something the GOP wouldn’t dare touch. “Fort Reagan” ?