The Army’s 250th anniversary is June 14, and what better way to celebrate than by honoring traitors who defected from the Union, fought against their countrymen, and perpetrated the deadliest war in American history in the name of slavery? That’s exactly what Trump has decided to do, in addition to throwing himself an extremely costly birthday parade on Saturday.
During a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday commemorating the military milestone, Trump told gathered members of the 82nd Airborne Division and Green Berets that he had “breaking news.”
“We are also going to be restoring the names of Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump said, rattling off a list of military bases and installations once named after disgraced Confederate military leaders, and which had in recent years been given new names not associated with the almost-nation-ending war waged by the South.
Fort Bragg — which was rechristened Fort Liberty in 2023, and then changed back to Bragg after Trump took office this year — is located in North Carolina and was originally named after the Confederate general Braxton Bragg. When Trump reinstituted the name, the administration claimed that they were not honoring Bragg the commander of the Confederate Army of Mississippi, but instead honoring World War II paratrooper Roland L. Bragg.
The administration is now dispensing with the name games.
Fort Barfoot — honoring Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Van T. Barfoot — will be reinstated as Fort Pickett, after Confederate General George Pickett. Fort Cavazos — named after the first Hispanic four star General Richard Cavazos — will revert back to Fort Hood, after Confederate General John Bell Hood. Outside of Hood’s own failings, why the military would like to rechristen the fort with a name associated with a disturbing series of modern days scandals and murder is baffling.
Fort Eisenhower — named for former president and WWII commander of the allied forces President Dwight D. Eisenhower — will revert to Fort Gordon, in honor of slave owner, Confederate general, and Georgia Governor John B. Gordon. Fort Novosel — currently named after Medal of Honor recipient Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel — will revert to Fort Rucker, after Confederate Colonel Edmund Rucker.
Fort Johnson — honoring William Henry Johnson, a Black WWI soldier who carried out the daring rescue of a fellow serviceman while severely wounded — will revert to Fort Polk, after one of the largest slave owners in Maury County, Tennessee, and Confederate General Leonidas Polk. Fort Walker — honoring Civil War surgeon and abolitionist Mary Edwards Walker — will once again be named Fort A.P. Hill, after Confederate Lieutenant General A. P. Hill.
Lastly, Confederate General Robert E. Lee will have his name reinstated at Fort Gregg-Adams, a major U.S. Army base in Virginia that currently honors Lieutenant General Arthur J. Gregg, the first Black Army Officer to achieve the rank of lieutenant general, and Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams Earley, the first Black member of the Women’s Army Corps to become an officer.
So happy birthday U.S. Army, especially to the haters and the losers — who will not be relegated to villainy of history — but whose efforts to enslave and subjugate will be honored as heroic by your commander in chief.
