A little over four years ago, military bases named after Confederate officers were required by law to drop those names. In December 2020 the Senate and House passed bills requiring the removal of Confederate names from bases. President Trump vetoed the measure, but each house of Congress overrode the veto with more than two-thirds vote to sustain the new law. In fact, the House of Representatives voted 322 to 87 to override the president’s veto. The vote came about after reconsiderations of racism following the killing of George Floyd. This override was supported by a bipartisan supermajority of Republicans and Democrats. Representative Don Bacon, a Republican House member, said at the time “We’re the party of Lincoln, the party of emancipation; we’re not the party of Jim Crow. We should be on the right side of this issue.” Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate said he had no problem with the military renaming the bases after “people who didn’t rebel against the country.”
On Tuesday, President Trump announced that he would be restoring the names of those bases that had been named after Confederates by finding a person with a similar name to the Confederate officer. Because of the 2020 law, he cannot rename the bases after Confederates, but he can bypass the intent of the law by renaming the base after someone with the same last name as the Confederate namesake.
Trump has done this with two bases already. Fort Bragg had been renamed Fort Liberty after the new law went into effect, but in March, the base was renamed again as Fort Bragg. The original person the base was named after was Braxton Bragg who commanded the Army of Tennessee during the Civil War and who had been a prominent slave owner. Trump announced that the base would now be named after Pvt. Roland L. Bragg, an obscure World War II veteran. During his campaign for the presidency, Trump promised to restore the names of Confederates to the army bases. “It’s Fort Bragg, and we’re proud,” future Vice President Vance said in Raeford, N.C., in October.
President Trump also renamed Fort Benning after the Confederate General Henry Benning. Benning was a politician who helped draft Georgia’s secession ordinance and led the state into war in 1861. He then went to Virginia to plead for that state to leave the Union saying before the 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….
The president made his announcement during a speech at the now-renamed Fort Bragg.that he would be “restoring” the name of another base to “Fort Robert E. Lee.” During the speech, President Trump said of the base he spoke at “Can you believe they changed that name in the last administration for a little bit? Fort Bragg is in. That’s the name. And Fort Bragg it shall always remain. That’s never going to be happening again.”
With President Trump’s altering how history is told at the National Parks, the Smithsonian, and in military libraries, it is a major victory for NeoConfederates who had worked for four years to restore recognition to the place of the Confederate leadership and slave owners in American history.
CBS News listed the complete list of the Confederate bases:
- Fort Gordon, in Georgia: originally named after Confederate John Brown Gordon, renamed in 2023 to Fort Eisenhower after President Dwight Eisenhower — will now honor Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon, a Medal of Honor recipient who fought in Somalia.
- Fort A.P. Hill, in Virginia: originally named after Ambrose Powell Hill, renamed in 2023 to Fort Walker after Dr. Mary Walker — will now honor three Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, Lt. Col. Edward Hill, 1st Sgt. Robert A. Pinn and Pvt. Bruce Anderson.
- Fort Hood, in Texas: originally named after John Bell Hood, renamed in 2023 to Fort Cavazos after Gen. Richard Cavazos — will now honor a World War I hero, Col. Robert B. Hood.
- Fort Lee, in Virginia: originally named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, renamed in 2023 to Fort Gregg-Adams after Lt. Gen. Arthur Gredgg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams — will now honor Pvt. Fitz Lee, commended for heroism in the Spanish-American War.
- Fort Pickett, in Virginia: originally named after George Edward Pickett, renamed in 2023 to Fort Barfoot after Tech. Sgt. Van T. Barfoot — will now honor 1st. Lt. Vernon W. Pickett, decorated for extraordinary heroism in World War II.
- Fort Polk, in Louisiana: originally named after Leonidas Polk, renamed in 2023 to Fort Johnson after Sgt. William Henry Johnson — will now honor Gen. James H. Polk, a WWII officer who later commanded U.S. Army Europe.
- Fort Rucker, in Alabama: originally named after Edmund Winchester Rucker, renamed in 2023 to Fort Novosel after Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr. — will now honor WWI aviator Capt. Edward W. Rucker.
I really don’t consider this a victory for the Neo-Confederates. It is a waste of money and Trump trying to undo the renaming choices Biden made for the sake of saying it’s been undone. That part is petty yet also on-brand.
But the CSA names aren’t coming back. These new names aren’t Confederates. For example, Fitz Lee isn’t Robert E. Lee. If anything, I expect groups like SCV to feel hoodwinked. This is not the full restoration they were promised.
Trump was prohibited by law from naming the bases after Confederates so he got around the ban by naming the bases after similarly non-Confederate soldiers. If you think that name a base after three unrelated servicemembers to rename camp A.P. Hill has nothing to do with restoring the Confederate names of bases, then I have a bridge to sell you.
No bridge needed. The parallelism is clear but also keeps the CSA name at legally required arms length. The names aren’t fully restored, the gesture is hollow, and people who wanted them *fully* restored didn’t get what they wanted. I don’t see Fort A.P. Hill’s name “restoration” actually being the amalgamation of three Union soldiers as a neo-Confederate victory.