Last week the Naming Commission released its “recommendations for Army installations named in commemoration of the Confederacy.”

Given today’s military, it shouldn’t be a surprise that political correctness and identity politics played a role. There are genuine heroes among the namesakes, but it’s likely not a mere accident that the list includes three women, three African-Americans and a Hispanic. No Asian-Americans though, must be racism.

This short-sighted process began with the erroneous notion that having a military facility named for someone who fought for the Confederacy indicates ipso facto an endorsement of slavery and racism. Take for instance Fort Bragg, named for Braxton Bragg.

Like many Confederate officers, Bragg attended West Point and served in the US Army. In 1918, the then Chief of Field Artillery, General William Snow, created an artillery training ground in North Carolina as part of a modernization effort. Snow, a Northerner from New York and New Jersey, in an obvious act of racism, named the facility Camp Bragg after the fellow artillery officer who was from North Carolina. Bragg was not a great Confederate general, and the Camp was named more for his service in the Mexican-American War.

In his last public speech, just days before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln made some remarks on reconstruction, and he said this about the wisdom of moving past the differences that had divided the nation.

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper relation with the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it.

The Civil War happened. It’s part of our history. Having military installations across the South, and named for Southerners, that are part of a once again unified country and military is an acknowledgement of that past and of the sacrifices made to make the Union possible again. Today, the South is the region as a whole with the strongest support of the military and of military service. The Commission may be inadvertently chipping away at the “proper practical relations” with the potential recruits it needs most.

The list, along with descriptions and stories of the individuals, is here.

Fort Moore

Fort Benning, Georgia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Julia Moore

Fort Liberty

Fort Bragg, North Carolina
to be renamed in commemoration of
the American value of Liberty

Fort Eisenhower

Fort Gordon, Georgia
to be renamed in commemoration of
General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower

Fort Walker

Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Fort Cavazos

Fort Hood, Texas
to be renamed in commemoration of
Gen. Richard E. Cavazos

Fort Gregg-Adams

Fort Lee, Virginia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams

Fort Barfoot

Fort Pickett, Virginia
to be renamed in commemoration of
Tech. Sgt. Van T. Barfoot

Fort Johnson

Fort Polk, Louisiana
to be renamed in commemoration of
Sgt. William Henry Johnson

Fort Novosel

Fort Rucker, Alabama
to be renamed in commemoration of CW4 Michael J. Novosel Sr.

This entry was posted by by Jeff Kouba on Tuesday, May 31st, 2022 at 9:44 am and is filed under Liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.