The Army announced on June 10 that it will rename seven military bases less than two years after Army bases honoring Confederate leaders were rededicated with new names pursuant to a congressionally mandated, multimillion-dollar effort started in the first Trump administration.
Located in Southern states that rebelled against the U.S. in 1860, the bases named in honor of secessionists who sought to preserve slavery and white supremacy were built during the first half of the 20th century—a period when white Southerners installed hundreds of monuments to the architects of racial hierarchy in America as part of a concerted effort to redeem their defeat and build cultural support for the restoration of white supremacy.
The insurrectionists’ names were replaced after Congress passed a bipartisan law in 2020 that prohibits the Defense Department from naming any military installations after “any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.”
The law established a bipartisan Naming Commission to identify assets with the names of military leaders who fought against the United States and recommend new names. After an extensive process involving hundreds of hours of research, community engagement, and internal deliberations, the commission recommended new names for nine Army bases in June 2022. All nine were approved and completed in 2023.
A “Cynical Manuever”
The base names will be changed to the names that honored white Southerners who sought to preserve slavery, as President Trump announced, “[F]or a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee.”
To get around the ban on honoring people who fought against the U.S., the Army identified service members with the same last names as the secessionists—a tactic first used to revert the name of the nation’s largest military base from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg earlier this year.
Originally named in honor of Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, an enslaver known for losing key Civil War battles, the base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 to honor fallen service members, at the suggestion of Gold Star families.
But in a February 10 memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Bragg name restored, saying it now refers to Army Pfc. Ronald L. Bragg, who was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for actions during Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
“By instead invoking the name of World War II soldier Private Roland Bragg, Secretary Hegseth has not violated the letter of the law, but he has violated its spirit,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., wrote in a statement opposing the defense secretary’s “cynical manuever.”
“Worse, he has insulted the Gold Star families who proudly supported Fort Liberty’s name, and he has dishonored himself by associating Private Bragg’s good name with a Confederate traitor.”
Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, was officially renamed Fort Moore in May 2023 in commemoration of Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, a highly decorated 32-year infantry commander who served in Vietnam, and Julia Moore, who reformed the Army’s policy for notifying families that their loved ones have been injured or killed.
It was the first base named after a military family, according to Military Times. Two of Hal and Julia’s sons are West Point graduates and career Army officers—retired Lt. Col. Steve Moore and retired Col. David Moore.
In March, Mr. Hegseth ordered the name Fort Moore stripped from the base and the name Fort Benning restored, this time for Cpl. Fred Benning, who CBS reported, “served with honor for a couple of years during World War I.”
“When I compare his short service in World War I, to mom and dad’s lifetime of service, and everything they did and influenced, I have to ask the question — why?” Steve Moore told CBS, calling the reversal “an absolute loophole.”
Real American Heroes
Changing Fort Moore to Fort Benning was the first time a service member’s name was removed from one of the renamed posts, Military Times reported. But it won’t be the last.
The decision to roll back the new names will also strip honors from the Army leaders and actual war heroes for whom the bases were renamed, retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, an armor officer for over 30 years and vice chairman of the Naming Commission, told Stars and Stripes.
“Why wouldn’t we want to name it after the great heroes that we do have in the U.S. Army?” he said. “They reflect the best of America. Inspirational people with inspirational stories.”
The Columbus post was named Fort Moore after extensive work with local leaders, who reviewed detailed records of Hal and Julia Moore’s service before deciding on the new name. While the name changed in 2023 with little local controversy, Military Times reported, the decision to bring back the Benning name has been met with dismay.
“The opportunity to name one of our premier training bases after both LTG Hal and his spouse Julia Moore is one we should not walk back,” Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe, the retired commanding general of the base, told reporters.
“I’m incredibly saddened,” David Moore said. “My only conclusion is that [Mr. Hegseth] chose to reject Hal and Julia Moore.”
“Utterly Wasted”
Critics have also pointed out the wastefulness of changing the names less than two years after taxpayers spent tens of millions of dollars to rename these bases.
Military officials told Stars and Stripes they dedicated significant time and resources to the renaming process. They said staff at Fort Liberty and Fort Moore spent months inventorying items to make sure the Confederate names were removed as the law required.
The Army spent about $9.3 million to rename the nine bases, and states spent millions more to update and add road signs with the new names. North Carolina spent some $450,000 to change highway signs from Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty, Stars and Stripes reported.
A Senate staffer told Stars and Stripes that changing back the names would mean those millions in taxpayer dollars were “utterly wasted”—and added that the reversal could be nearly as expensive as the first renaming.
AP reported last week that the Pentagon provided no immediate cost estimate for renaming the bases.
“Traitors Who Killed American Soldiers”
As Professor Emeritus of History and former head of the history department at West Point, Seidule said that he remains committed to “tell the story of why we can’t go back to naming things after people who tried to destroy this great country.”
He pointed to the example of Braxton Bragg, who he said served in the U.S. Army as an artillery officer for 19 years before resigning his commission to enslave more than 100 people on a Louisiana sugar plantation. After Louisiana seceded from the United States, he accepted a commission as general in the Confederate Army, and earned a reputation for losing battles—and the respect of his men.
Other bases are named after insurrectionists who never even served in the U.S. Army, including Henry Benning, Edward Rucker and John Gordon, Seidule said.
“The thing they did do was kill U.S. Army soldiers,” he said. “They committed treason for slavery and then they killed U.S. Army soldiers.”
That should persuade any American patriot that Army posts should not bear the names of Confederates, he said.
“We have to commemorate our great heroes, not traitors who killed American soldiers.”