Ten Army Bases Named for Confederate Officers

US Army forts named after confederate soldiers or war criminals??

Confederate Flag

US Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Chaffee were named in honor of General Leonard Wood and General Chaffee were war criminals during in the Philippine American War .
U.S. Army operates posts named for ten Confederate. Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said there is no discussion underway about renaming the posts.

Fort Lee, Va., just south of Richmond, honors General Robert E. Lee the South’s commanding officer by the Civil War’s end. The War Department created Camp Lee within weeks of declaring war on Germany in 1917. The Pentagon promoted it to Fort Lee in 1950.

Fort Gordon, Ga., honors Lieut. General John Brown Gordon was one of Lee’s most-trusted officers. The post began as Camp Gordon in 1917; it became Fort Gordon in 1956. “Generally acknowledged as the head of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1872,” according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia (Gordon denied the charge). “By the time of his death in 1904, Gordon had capitalized on his war record to such an extent that he had become for many Georgians, and southerners in general, the living embodiment of the Confederacy.”

Fort Benning, Ga., honors Brigadier General Henry Benning. He was a Georgia lawyer, politician, judge and supporter of slavery. “In the wake of President Lincoln’s election, Benning became one of Georgia’s most vocal proponents of secession,” according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. “On November 19, 1860, he delivered a speech before the state legislature urging immediate secession. The Army established Camp Benning in 1918; it became a fort four years later 1950.

Fort Bragg, N.C., honors General Braxton Bragg: When the War Between the States broke out, Confederate President Jefferson Davis made Bragg a brigadier general. He then took command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee from the summer of 1862 to the end of 1863. He was a full general commanding nearly 40,000 troops. His career is remembered by most historians as a series of continuous calamities and blunders; often resulting in disaster.

Fort Polk, La., honors Lieut. General Leonidas Polk. It was established in 1941. Polk’s immediate superior, General Braxton Bragg, of Fort Bragg fame. Before being killed in action in 1864 during the Atlanta campaign, Polk committed one of the biggest blunders of the war. He sent troops to occupy Columbus, Ky., which led the Kentucky legislature to appeal to Washington for help, ending the state’s brief try at neutrality.

Fort A.P. Hill, Va., honors Virginia native Lieut. Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill commanded the Third Corps of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign and the fall campaigns of 1863. The Army created the post six months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. A Union soldier from Pennsylvania shot and killed Hill in Petersburg, Va., a week before the end of the Civil War.

Fort Hood, Texas, honors native Confederate General John Bell Hood. The post began as Camp Hood in 1942, becoming a fort in 1950. In 1864, at the age of 33 was promoted to temporary full general and command of the Army of Tennessee at the outskirts of Atlanta. He was decisively defeated at the Battle of Nashville by his former West Point instructor, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. Hood was wounded at Gettysburg, losing the use of his left arm. During the Battle of Chickamauga, suffering wounds that led to the loss of his right leg.

Fort Pickett, Va., honors Confederate Major General George Pickett. Pickett’s 1863 charge at Gettysburg has been called “the high-water mark of the Confederacy” before ending up a Union victory. It became a fort in 1974 and now is a Virginia Army National Guard installation.

Fort Rucker, Alabama, honors Confederate Colonel Edmund Rucker. At Nashville Rucker lost his left arm. He was commissioned a brigadier general but the commission did not arrive before the war ended. Fort Rucker was originally the Division Camp before being renamed Camp Rucker in 1942. It became Fort Rucker in 1955.

Camp Beauregard, La., honors Louisiana native and Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. It is a major training site for the Louisiana National Guard. Beauregard was the first brigadier general in the Confederate army. Dispatched to defend Charleston, S.C., his troops began shelling Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, launching the Civil War.

Fort Bragg, N.C., honors General Braxton Bragg: When the War Between the States broke out, Confederate President Jefferson Davis made Bragg a brigadier general.