Fort Bragg
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, with around 57,000 military personnel.[1] Fort Bragg is located just west of Fayetteville, North Carolina.The fort is named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg. It covers over 251 square miles in four counties.[2]
The Congressional Research Service took up the question of whether it was appropriate to keep Bragg’s and other former Confederate generals’ names on modern-day Army installations in 2017, 10 days after a woman was killed in Charlottesville, Va., during a protest over a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.[3]
History
Fort Bragg is one of 10 Army bases named for Confederates. They’re all in Southern states. Half, including Bragg, were established during World War I and half during the 1940s. Many of the millions of soldiers and civilians who have trained and worked on the base since then may have not known that it was named after Gen. Braxton Bragg, whom the American Battlefield Trust describes as “one of the most controversial figures of the Confederate army.”[3]
It is named after Warrenton native, Braxton Bragg, whose success in the Mexican-American War made him a national hero, but his weaknesses as a military leader were exposed and exploited by the Union during the Civil War. Fort Bragg is the Army's largest military installation with nearly 50,000 soldiers on post.[4] Civil War historian Earl Hess wrote a biography of Bragg published by UNC Press in 2016 titled, “Braxton Bragg: The Most-Hated Man of the Confederacy” and said in a lecture at the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute conference in 2017 that while Bragg was a combative personality, he was unjustly painted by the press of his day as a failure in his personal life and military career.[3]
Michael Newcity, a visiting professor at Duke University, says the naming of Fort Bragg is in some sense a special case. Unlike in other instances, he said, there did not appear to be widespread pressure from local leaders to name the camp after a Confederate leader. The mere length of Bragg’s name was apparently key in the choice, along with the fact Bragg was from North Carolina and had ties to the field artillery. Bragg was selected to represent a “triumph” for the "Lost Cause" myth, which aims to paint the Confederacy and its cause in positive terms while glossing over slavery. They were not thinking about issues relating to African American sensibilities.[5]
Controversy
In July 2020, congress was weighing whether to require the Pentagon to rename military installments that currently carry the name of Confederate leaders. That includes Fort Bragg, which is named for a Confederate general. There are roughly 10 Army installations named for Confederate figures that have gotten renewed public interest in recent weeks, in the light of the death of George Floyd and the resulting public outcry over racial injustice in the United States.[5]
"It's pretty rare for the country to have a major military installation named for somebody who fought against that country. It was the Confederacy against the United States of America. He was killing American troops. He didn't fight under the banner of the United States of America and therefore, he was the enemy," said Dr. William Sturkey, a historian and assistant professor teaching the history of race in the American South at UNC Chapel Hill. "It is a place that white people built and control. It's a place that honors white soldiers and fundamentally excludes other people by prioritizing white history over African American history," said Sturkey.[4]
"Between the Mexican War and the Civil War, Braxton Bragg lived the life of a genteel planter on a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana where slaves put in back-breaking labor in unspeakable conditions to bring molasses to market and earn Bragg a profit. He met any Northern criticism of slavery with harsh criticism," wrote Michael Newcity in an article on Duke Today.[6]
Given Gen. Bragg's historic reputation, it may seem strange they would honor him by naming a military base after him.[6]
References
- ↑ Ioanes, Ellen; Choi, David (June 9, 2020). "The US Army is now open to renaming its military bases — here are 10 of them that still reference Confederate leaders". Business Insider.
- ↑ Fort Bragg Army Base Guide. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Quillin, Martha. How NC Army base came to be named for Bragg. And why a scholar says it’s time to change. June 12, 2020. newsobserver.com. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Davis, Akilan. The history behind the naming of Fort Bragg as Pentagon considers renaming base. June 12, 2020. abc11.com. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Frey, Kevin. Congress Weighs Renaming Fort Bragg, Other Military Installments Honoring Confederates. JUL. 01, 2020. spectrumlocalnews.com. Retrieved 18 Jan, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Baez, Gilbert. Fort Bragg, named after Confederate leader, slave owner, discusses name change. June 9, 2020. wral.com. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021

