This Tweet refusing to consider renaming bases named for Confederate generals Bragg, Hood, and Benning needs some context to understand who Trump finds so memorable.
Braxton Bragg was a dyspeptic man and a mediocre commander responsible for losing most/1
Braxton Bragg was a dyspeptic man and a mediocre commander responsible for losing most/1
of the western Confederacy. He was defeated or withdrew from the field at Perryville, at Stones River, and at Chattanooga. His only "victory," at Chickamauga, was largely attributable to having received reinforcements under the command of James Longstreet. /2
Hardly a "history of winning" as Trump tweeted. Since Bragg happened to be a North Carolinian by birth, and for no reason attributable to his military prowess, we have "Fort Bragg" in NC.
Bragg was succeeded as Confederate commander in the west by John Bell Hood /3
Bragg was succeeded as Confederate commander in the west by John Bell Hood /3
- another Trump "winner." Well, not really. Hood had considerable personal courage, but was a disaster as a strategist. He has the distinction of having lost Atlanta to Sherman and, thereby, essentially secured Lincoln's reelection.
Hood is from Texas so, we have "Fort Hood." /4
Hood is from Texas so, we have "Fort Hood." /4
Perhaps Union general James McPherson best captured the military abilities of Bragg and Hood when he said, it was "the bumblers like Bragg and Pemberton [who lost Vicksburg to Grant] and Hood who lost the West." /5
I've saved the "best" for last - Confederate General Henry Benning. Benning, a Georgian, was such an ardent secessionist [i.e., traitor] and anti-abolitionist that he wanted to divide the Confederacy in half to protect the Deep South's ability "to put slavery under the /6
control of those most interested in it." As an associate justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in 1853, Benning was noted for an opinion that held that the Georgia court was not bound by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court because the courts were "coordinate and co-equal." /7
At the Virginia secession convention in February 1861, Benning stated that he would rather be stricken with illness and starvation than see African Americans liberated from slavery. He was a decent commander in the field, but, as a bigot, he was world class. /8
This man is the namesake for Georgia's Fort Benning.
Now, the president may have his reasons for wanting to retain these names for U.S. military bases where black men and women serve their country -- stupidity, stubbornness and simplemindedness come to mind -- /9
Now, the president may have his reasons for wanting to retain these names for U.S. military bases where black men and women serve their country -- stupidity, stubbornness and simplemindedness come to mind -- /9
but what these men, and their legacies, don't represent is a "History of Winning, Victory and Freedom." /10
