Bragg? Benning? Hood? What 14 military posts are named after Confederate leaders?

Factual Questions
1

I heard a recent news story that there are 14 such posts. What are they? And are there 14, or more, or fewer?

Bragg, and Benning, and Hood are three of them.

2
3

There are ten specifically named in this VoteVets ad.

4

These are the 10 usually mentioned.

Fort Lee
Fort Hood
Fort Benning
Fort Gordon
Fort Bragg
Fort Polk
Fort Pickett
Fort A.P. Hill
Fort Rucker
Camp Beauregard

Fort Polk is named after General Leonidas Polk, not his second cousin President James Polk.

I haven’t seen reference to another four.

5

Here’s more detailed information on the 10 bases.

Where exactly did you see reference to 14 bases?

6

It could be the 14 includes other things besides bases, for example:

7

It was a news story on TV. It named a few, and it said there were 14 of them.

8

What channel/program? Or don’t you remember?

9

Regarding Chancellorsville, there have been other U.S. Navy ships named after lost battles, including Bataan and Corregidor. I doubt that in either of the latter two cases there were portraits of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto displayed on board ship.

10

It was either CNN or Fox. I think it was on Fox, but I’m not certain because I often switch back and forth between the two. IIRC, it was Fox.

11

There’s Lee Barracks at West Point. Not a base but it’s an Army installation officially named after a Confederate.

There was also a Lee Barracks at an American Army base in Germany. But that was named after a WWII officer not the Confederate General. And it’s now been deactivated. And I joked about Fort Jackson in another post but somebody might seriously think that was named after Stonewall Jackson rather than Andrew Jackson.

So sloppy research could bring us up to thirteen.

12

George Pickett contributed greatly to Federal morale at Gettysburg.

13

If we include the street named after Robert E. Lee in Fort Hamilton, that gives us fourteen. :slight_smile:

*Lee was stationed there as a lieutenant before the Civil War.

14

There are actually two streets named after Confederate generals on Ft. Hamilton Army Base, General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive. NY mayor Bill de Blasio is asking that they be changed.

But if we’re counting streets I think it’s very likely there are other streets named for Confederate officers on other US bases, and not just in the South.

15

So there are ten. Not fourteen. Thank you for the responses and contributions.

16

Some things named Lee could be named after General Charles Lee who Fort Lee, New Jersey is named after. We could just scrape the Robert E. off like it was a dog turd on a shoe.

17

Hell, in most cases the scraping would be unnecessary. It’s usually just the family name that’s used in the official name, and you only see the full name of the person in the dedication document and the “About Us” page or its equivalent. So the cost would be to explicitly add the first names.

18

Canadian, here, so I may not understand the nuances of the situation, but why are there US Army bases named after men who rebelled against the US?

19

Moderating

That question is a political one, and is best handled in another forum. Here are some active threads that discuss the reasons. Please take questions and discussion there.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=897836&
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=833552&

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

20

Here are the ten bases with maps and some links. I like to visualize where the bases are located within the state.

Interestingly, Rucker lived long enough to see some of these bases named for his fellow CSA officers. Rucker died in 1924, a few years after the bases for Beauregard, Benning, Bragg, and Lee were established.
[ol]
[li]Camp Beauregard, Louisiana[/li][ul]
[li] Google Maps << map, in central Louisiana, approx 125 miles NW of Baton Rouge[/li][li] CSA General Pierre G. T. Beauregard (Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard; 1818 – 1893) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://geauxguard.la.gov/installations/camp-beauregard/[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Beauregard[/li][li] 1917[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] Fort Benning, Georgia[/li][ul]
[li] Google Maps << map, in western Georgia, approx 125 miles SW of Atlanta[/li][li] CSA Brigadier General Henry Lewis Benning (1814 - 1875) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://www.benning.army.mil/[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Benning[/li][li] 1918[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li]Fort Bragg, North Carolina[/li][ul]
[li] Google Maps << map, in central North Carolina, approx 75 miles SW of Raleigh[/li][li] CSA General Braxton Bragg (1817 - 1876) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://home.army.mil/bragg/index.php[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bragg[/li][li] 1918[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li]Fort Gordon, Georgia[/li][ul]
[li] Google Maps << map, in eastern Georgia, approx 150 miles east of Atlanta[/li][li] CSA Major General John Brown Gordon (1832 - 1904) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://home.army.mil/gordon/index.php[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Gordon[/li][li] 1941[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] ** Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia**[/li][ul]
[li] *** Google Maps*** << map, in northern Virginia, approx 50 miles N of Richmond[/li][li] CSA General Ambrose Powell Hill Jr. (1826 - 1865) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://www.army.mil/aphill[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_A.P._Hill[/li][li] 1941[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] ** Fort Hood, Texas**[/li][ul]
[li] *** Google Maps*** << map, in central Texas, approx 75 miles N of Austin[/li][li] CSA General John Bell Hood (1831 - 1879) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://www.hood.army.mil/[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood[/li][li] 1942[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] ** Fort Lee, Virginia**[/li][ul]
[li] *** Google Maps*** << map, in eastern Virginia, approx 25 miles S of Richmond[/li][li] CSA General Robert E. Lee (1807 - 1870) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://home.army.mil/lee/index.php[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lee_(Virginia)[/li][li] 1917[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] ** Fort Pickett, Virginia**[/li][ul]
[li] ***Google Maps *** << map, in south central Virginia, approx 50 miles SW of Richmond[/li][li] CSA General George Edward Pickett (1825 - 1875) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://vko.va.ngb.army.mil/fortpickett/[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pickett[/li][li] 1942[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] ** Fort Polk, Louisiana**[/li][ul]
[li] *** Google Maps *** << map, in western Louisiana, approx 150 miles W of Baton Rouge[/li][li] CSA Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk (1806 - 1864) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://home.army.mil/polk/index.php[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Polk[/li][li] 1941[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]

[li] ** Fort Rucker, Alabama**[/li][ul]
[li] *** Google Maps *** << map, in southeastern Alabama, approx 100 miles SE of Montgomery[/li][li] CSA Colonel Edmund Winchester Rucker (1835 - 1924) [wiki][/li][li] Base website — https://home.army.mil/rucker/[/li][li] Base wiki page — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Rucker[/li][li] 1942[/li][li] .[/li][/ul]
[/ol]