Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reprised his renaming of United States military bases after Confederates. Fort Benning, which was renamed Fort Moore in 2023, will be renamed again as “Fort Benning.” The name was stripped two years ago under a new law that stops bases being named after Confederate figures. In February, Hegseth renamed Fort Liberty back to its old name of Fort Bragg. In that case he said that it was named after a World War II veteran who also was named Bragg. Now, he says, Fort Benning is not being named after Confederate General Henry Benning, but after a World War I veteran named Benning.
It is clear that Hegseth is using random 20th Century veterans with the same name as the original Confederate generals whom the forts were named after. This way he gets around the prohibition on naming military bases after those who fought against the United States Army. The renamed Fort Bragg is named in honor of Roland L. Bragg. From what I’ve read, he acquitted himself well in World War II, but no one thought of naming a base for him until 2025 when Hegseth decided to restore the name of the fort. Fort Benning is named for Corporal (CPL) Fred G. Benning. He replaces Lt. Gen. Hal Moore as the person being honored. Moore was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, a Purple Heart and four Bronze Stars, including two with V devices. The fort was also named Fort Moore in honor of his wife who helped found support services for the families of servicemembers who died.
Lt. General Moore wrote a bestselling book called “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” which was published in 1992 and became the basis for a Mel Gibson movie “We Were Soldiers Once.”
Henry Benning was not only a general for the Confederacy, he was also a leading advocate of secession. After his own state of Georgia voted to secede, he served as a delegate to Virginia to urge that state to follow Georgia’s course. Benning told the Virginia secession convention:
What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession? This reason may be summed up in one single proposition. It was a conviction, a deep conviction on the part of Georgia, that a separation from the North was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery…. If things are allowed to go on as they are, it is certain that slavery is to be abolished. By the time the North shall have attained the power, the black race will be in a large majority, and then we will have black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything. Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand for that? It is not a supposable case…. War will break out everywhere like hidden fire from the earth, and it is probable that the white race, being superior in every respect, may push the other back…. We will be overpowered and our men will be compelled to wander like vagabonds all over the earth; and as for our women, the horrors of their state we cannot contemplate in imagination. That is the fate which abolition will bring upon the white race…. We will be completely exterminated, and the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back to a wilderness and become another Africa…. Suppose they elevated Charles Sumner to the presidency? Suppose they elevated Fred Douglass, your escaped slave, to the presidency? What would be your position in such an event? I say give me pestilence and famine sooner than that.
