Rename Army, Guard bases named after confederate leaders

[struggle4progress]

By Michael Newcity
Published 6:01 a.m. ET Aug. 15, 2017

... There are eight U.S. Army bases, all located in Southern states, named after Confederate generals: Fort Bragg (N.C.), Fort Benning (Ga.), Fort Gordon (Ga.), Fort Polk (La.), Fort Hood (Texas), Fort A.P. Hill (Va.), Fort Lee (Va.), and Fort Rucker (Ala.). In addition, several National Guard facilities, such as Fort Pickett (Va.) and Camp Beauregard (La.), bear the names of Confederate generals.

It seems odd that the U.S. Army ever considered naming its bases after men who, by definition, conducted war against the United States. It seems even odder that a military force in which racial minorities comprise one-quarter to one-third of the force would be asked to serve on bases named after men who fought to maintain slavery ...

The Department of the Defense and the Army have been adamant that they will not consider renaming the existing bases named after Confederate generals. The Army recently refused to change street names at Fort Hamilton, N.Y., named after Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, because they honor Lee and Jackson “as individuals, not as any particular cause or ideology.”

This is rubbish. During World War I, the policy to name new southern army camps after Confederate commanders was intended to effect a reconciliation between the North and the South, where bruised feelings about the Lost Cause were potent and widespread. The names were chosen, at least in part, to encourage Southern buy-in to the nation’s new war. These names were chosen precisely because the men honored had been Confederate leaders ...

http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2017/08/15/column-time-rename-military-bases-named-after-confederate-leaders/566499001/

[marybourg]

1. Just for info purposes for those who don't know:

Robert E. Lee was the founder of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its first Chief Engineer. He can't be completely wiped from military history. Exactly how much he should be remembered and memorialized for that can be an open question, but it's a question of degree, not of fact.

[struggle4progress]

2. um .. no .. the CoE was founded in 1802 with the Military Peace Establishment Act

[marybourg]

3. And the Act was the first Chief Engineer?

[tikka]

4. according to CoE

Lee wasn't a Chief Engineer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Army_Corps_of_Engineers_Chiefs_of_Engineers

[marybourg]

5. Very interesting. I visited the C of E Headquarters

about 40 years ago and they had a wall of photos/paintings of their Chief Engineers going back in time, and the first and largest picture above the others, was of Robt. E. Lee who, we on the tour were told, was the first Chief Engineer. This is not a childhood memory; I was already an adult.

Strange. Possibly they were "puffing" by claiming him as their first chief, or more likely? I dreamed the whole thing??

OK, I'm sorry if I mis-directed anyone, and will no longer rely on old memories to make statements. Unfortunately, being old, most of my memories are likewise old.