Numerous military installations in the United States are or were named after general officers in the Confederate States Army (CSA). These are all U.S. Army or Army National Guard posts, typically named following World War I and during the 1940s. [1] [2] In 2021, the United States Congress created The Naming Commission, a United States government commission, in order to rename federally-owned military assets that have names associated with the CSA. [3] On 5 January 2023 William A. LaPlante, US USD (A&S) directed the full implementation of the recommendations of the Naming Commission, DoD-wide. [4]
Although the individual states are not required to rename their state-owned National Guard facilities, Louisiana has chosen to do so. There are currently no plans to rename state-owned facilities outside of Louisiana, with governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia electing to leave the names of Confederate figures in place.
During the world wars, the United States established numerous military bases in former states of the Confederacy that were named after Confederate military figures. Calls to rename the bases occurred sporadically during the 2010s.
In 2015, the Pentagon declared it would not rename any military installations named after Confederate generals, saying "the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division", [5] and declined to make further comment when the issue was raised in 2017. [6] Following the June 2020 nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, the federal government began rethinking its traditional connection to Confederate Army symbols, including base names. President Donald Trump strongly opposed renaming the bases. [7] Partially due to provisions allowing Confederate-named bases to be renamed, Trump vetoed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), however, the veto was overridden by a bipartisan vote of Congress. [8]
In 2021, per a provision in the NDAA, Congress created The Naming Commission in order to rename military assets with names associated with the Confederacy. [9] The United States Secretary of Defense was required to implement a plan developed by the commission and to "remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense" within three years of the commission's creation. [10] [11]
There are nine major U.S. military bases that were formerly named in honor of Confederate military leaders, all in former Confederate States. [12] All were renamed in 2023:
The following installations were transferred over to their respective state's National Guard units and are not considered to be assets of the Federal government nor part of The Naming Commission's mandate: [23]
Other deactivated mid-20th century installations named for Confederate Generals were:
Vernon Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,750. The parish seat is Leesville. Bordered on the west by the Sabine River, the parish was founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction era.
Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, of Louisiana Creole descent, was the Confederate General who started the American Civil War at the battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used his first name as an adult. He signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.
Fort Novosel is a United States Army post located primarily in Dale County, Alabama, United States. It is named in honor of Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel, an Army aviator and Medal of Honor recipient. It was previously named for a Civil War officer, Confederate Colonel Edmund Rucker. The post is the primary flight training installation for U.S. Army Aviators and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE) and the United States Army Aviation Museum. Small sections of the post also lie in Coffee, Geneva, and Houston counties. Part of the Dale County section of the base is a census-designated place; its population was 4,636 at the 2010 census.
Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, is a military installation of the United States Army in North Carolina, and is one of the largest military installations in the world by population, with over 52,000 military personnel. The military reservation is located within Cumberland and Hoke counties, and borders the towns of Fayetteville, Spring Lake, and Southern Pines.
Fort Gregg-Adams, in Prince George County, Virginia, United States, is a United States Army post and headquarters of the United States Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM)/ Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE), the U.S. Army Quartermaster School, the U.S. Army Ordnance School, the U.S. Army Transportation School, the Army Sustainment University (ALU), Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and the U.S. Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA).
The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC), also referred to as the Confederate States Marines, was a branch of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. It was established by an act of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States on March 16, 1861. The Corps' manpower was initially authorized at 45 officers and 944 enlisted men, and was increased on September 24, 1862, to 1,026 enlisted men. The organization of the Corps began at Montgomery, Alabama, and was completed at Richmond, Virginia, when the capital of the Confederate States was moved to that location. The headquarters and main training facilities remained in Richmond throughout the war, located at Camp Beall on Drewry's Bluff and at the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The last Marine unit surrendered to the Union army on April 9, 1865, with the Confederacy itself capitulating a month later.
Fort Eisenhower, formerly known as Fort Gordon and Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cyber Command, and the Cyber Center of Excellence. It was once the home of The Provost Marshal General School and Civil Affairs School.
Fort Walker, formerly Fort A.P. Hill, is a training and maneuver center belonging to the United States Army located near the town of Bowling Green, Virginia. The center focuses on arms training and is used by all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, independent of any post.
Fort Belvoir is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Fairfax family for whom Fairfax County was named. It was known as Camp A. A. Humphreys from 1917 to 1935 and Fort Belvoir afterward.
Louisiana National Guard Training Center Pineville is a Louisiana National Guard installation located northeast of Pineville, Louisiana, primarily in Rapides Parish, but also extending northward into Grant Parish. It is operated and owned by the Louisiana National Guard as one of their main training areas.
Fort Barfoot, formerly Fort Pickett, is a Virginia Army National Guard installation, located near the town of Blackstone, Virginia. Home of the Army National Guard Maneuver Training Center, Fort Barfoot was originally named for the United States Army officer and Confederate General George Pickett. It was one of the U.S. Army installations named for Confederate soldiers that has been renamed by The Naming Commission. Their recommendation was for the post to be renamed Fort Barfoot, in honor of Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Van T. Barfoot. On 5 January 2023, William A. LaPlante, US Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, directed the full implementation of the recommendations of the Naming Commission, DoD-wide. The redesignation ceremony occurred on 24 March 2023.
Michael J. Novosel Sr. of Enterprise, Alabama, served in the United States military during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He flew the B-29 Superfortress bomber in World War II. To serve in the Vietnam War, he gave up the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve and became a chief warrant officer in the Army. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration, for his bravery in conducting a medical evacuation under fire in the Vietnam War.
New Orleans, Louisiana, was the largest city in the South, providing military supplies and thousands of troops for the Confederate States Army. Its location near the mouth of the Mississippi made it a prime target for the Union, both for controlling the huge waterway and crippling the Confederacy's vital cotton exports.
Louisiana was a dominant population center in the southwest of the Confederate States of America, controlling the wealthy trade center of New Orleans, and contributing the French Creole and Cajun populations to the demographic composition of a predominantly Anglo-American country. In the antebellum period, Louisiana was a slave state, where enslaved African Americans had comprised the majority of the population during the eighteenth-century French and Spanish dominations. By the time the United States acquired the territory (1803) and Louisiana became a state (1812), the institution of slavery was entrenched. By 1860, 47% of the state's population were enslaved, though the state also had one of the largest free black populations in the United States. Much of the white population, particularly in the cities, supported slavery, while pockets of support for the U.S. and its government existed in the more rural areas.
Van Thomas Barfoot was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
Camp Pendleton is a 325-acre (1.32 km2) state military reservation in Virginia Beach, Virginia, named after Confederate Brigadier General William N. Pendleton, who served as Robert E. Lee's chief of artillery during the American Civil War. It lies on the Atlantic coast slightly east of Naval Air Station Oceana.
The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America, more commonly referred to as the Naming Commission, was a United States government commission created by the United States Congress in 2021 to create a list of military assets with names associated with the Confederate States of America and recommendations for their removal.