Forts Cavazos, Barfoot and Liberty — new names for army bases honor new heroes and lasting values, instead of Confederates who lost a war
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Jeff South, Virginia Commonwealth University
(THE CONVERSATION) One by one, the names of Confederate generals are being removed from U.S. military bases.
On April 27, 2023, Fort Lee, a military base in Virginia named for a Confederate general, was renamed for two African American officers: Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, the U.S. Army’s first Black three-star general, and Lt. Col. Charity Adams, who oversaw mail delivery to soldiers in Europe during World War II.
On May 9, Fort Hood in Texas, originally named for a Confederate general who wrote that it would be better to “die a thousand deaths” than free the South’s slaves, was renamed for Gen. Richard Cavazos, who earned more than a dozen medals for valor in Vietnam and Korea and became the first Hispanic American promoted to general.
On May 11, Georgia’s Fort Benning, named for a Confederate general who said he would rather suffer “pestilence and famine” than give up slavery, became the only base named for a married couple: Lt. Gen. Harold Moore, a Vietnam War hero, and his wife, Julia, an advocate for military families.
And on June 2, Fort Bragg, a base in North Carolina...