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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 26 OctOber 2021
Stripping military bases of Confederate names stirs passions
“The times change,” he adds. going to change the names of
streets throughout the Unit-
Local innkeepers Jim and ed States?”
Christine Hasbrouck ap-
plaud the removal of Con- In fact the post-George
federate generals’ names. Floyd debate over racial in-
justice does extend beyond
“We need to stop putting military base names. Pickett,
them on a pedestal,” says Jim. for example, is a name that
stirs controversy as far away
Fort Pickett is used mainly as Washington state. In 2019
by the Virginia National the Bellingham city council
Guard. Situated in what is voted to remove the Pick-
known as Southside Virginia, ett name from a bridge that
it is roughly halfway between troops under his command
Richmond, former capital of built during his establish-
the Confederacy, and Appo- ment of a frontier post called
mattox, where Gen. Robert Fort Bellingham in the 1850s.
E. Lee surrendered his Con-
federate forces in 1865. A hotter topic here in Not-
toway County is a November
This is a heavily Republican referendum on whether to
area that voted for Donald relocate a Confederate war
(AP) — Civil War history Pickett and other bases is part ernment picked the Pickett Trump over Joe Biden by monument that has stood in
casts a long shadow in of a national reckoning with name in the first place. The 57% to 42% last November front of the county court-
Virginia, the birthplace centuries of racial injustice, 1942 dedication ceremony and also favored Trump over house since 1893.
of Confederate generals, triggered most recently by for what originally was called Hillary Clinton four years
scene of their surrender the May 2020 police killing Camp Pickett, attended by earlier by a 55% to 42% mar- Fort Pickett is among the last
and now a crossroad of of George Floyd in Minne- the general’s descendants, gin. Reminders of the Civil bases to be visited by mem-
controversy over renam- apolis. For years, the military was held on July 3 to coin- War are not hard to find here; bers of the federal Nam-
ing military bases that defended the naming of bases cide with the 79th anniver- up the road among groves ing Commission created by
honor rebel leaders. after Confederate officers; as sary of his Gettysburg charge. of pine, elm, maple and oak Congress. In their other vis-
recently as 2015 the Army ar- An Associated Press account is Sailor’s Creek Battlefield its, the commissioners were
In and around Blackstone, gued that the names did not of the ceremony quoted Vir- State Park, scene of a series generally well received by
about 50 miles (80 kilome- honor the rebel cause but ginia Gov. Colgate Darden of battles on April 6, 1865, in communities, although some
ters) southwest of Richmond, were a gesture of reconcilia- saying the story of Pickett’s which Confederate forces — people “took the opportunity
that shadow can stir passions tion with the South. Charge “will live forever as including a unit commanded to vent a little,” according to
when talk turns to nearby an epic of superb courage” by Pickett — were defeated. Michelle Howard, a retired
Fort Pickett. Some are trou- Congress easily agreed last that made him a Virginia Three days later, Lee surren- Navy admiral who heads the
bled by Congress requiring year to compel the name “immortal.” dered at Appomattox. commission, which will visit
the Pickett name be dropped changes to remove what are Pickett soon.
as part of a wider scrubbing seen by many as emblems of Some folks, like Greg Eanes, Congress last year created a
of military base names that human bondage and Black an Air Force veteran who federal commission to rec- Aside from his decision to
commemorate the Confed- oppression. grew up in the nearby town ommend new names for at take up arms against the fed-
eracy or honor officers who of Crewe, see removing the least nine Army bases named eral government, Pickett’s
fought for it. In all, the names Reflecting a shift in the mili- Pickett name as disrespecting for Confederate officers, in- military record is the subject
of at least nine Army bases in tary’s thinking, Army Gen. the rebels and their descen- cluding three in Virginia. of conflicting interpretation
six states will be changed. Mark Milley, chairman of dants. The others are in North by historians. But it’s gener-
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, ally agreed that his perfor-
Others here say it’s high time spoken forcefully about a leg- “In my opinion, it is nothing Louisiana and Texas. The law mance was spotty at best.
to drop the names. acy of Black pain reflected in less than cultural genocide, was passed over the objection
Confederate names at Army albeit with a velvet glove,” of Trump, who argued that After the decimation of his
“Change them!” says Na- bases where today at least Eanes says, standing beside renaming disrespects those division at Gettysburg in
thaniel Miller, a Black mem- 20% of soldiers are Black. He a still-visible Confederate who trained at the bases. 1863, Pickett commanded
ber of the town council who said those names can be re- trench on a battlefield in an Confederate forces in North
was stationed at Pickett after minders to Black soldiers that adjacent county. “The South Two active Navy ships also Carolina and Virginia. His
he returned from Vietnam the rebel officers fought for has a unique history. Many of will be renamed. The USNS defeat at Five Forks, about 20
in 1973. “It should have hap- an institution that may have its people have ancestors and Maury, an oceanographic sur- miles east of Blackstone, in
pened a long time ago,” he enslaved their ancestors. family members who were vey ship, was named for Mat- 1865 was especially humili-
says, because the names are in the Confederate armies. thew Fontaine Maury, a naval ating because he had slipped
a reminder of slavery and a Milley told a House commit- It would be wrong, in my officer and scientist who re- away earlier to a fish bake,
period in American history tee in June 2020 the Confed- opinion, to dismiss — just signed to join the Confeder- not expecting a Union attack.
when Black people had no eracy doesn’t deserve to be arbitrarily dismiss — their ates. The cruiser USS Chan- Days later he fled the battle-
voice. commemorated in this way. concerns.” cellorsville was named for field at Sailor’s Creek after
the 1863 Confederate victory his men were overwhelmed
Fort Pickett’s namesake is “It was an act of rebellion, Still, stripping Fort Pickett of at Chancellorsville, Virginia. and forced to surrender.
Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett, it was an act of treason at its Confederate connection
best remembered for a failed the time, against the Union, is hardly a hot topic around Tom Wilkinson, a Blackstone Whatever the details of his
Confederate assault at Get- against the Stars and Stripes, here. resident and retired Army legacy, people who grew
tysburg that became known against the U.S. Constitu- colonel who commanded up near Fort Pickett say the
as Pickett’s Charge. He was tion,” he said. “And those “There was probably a time Fort Pickett from 2008 to name change won’t really
a Virginia native and a West officers turned their back on in my life when this would 2012, says he accepts the re- matter.
Point graduate who resigned their oath. Now, some have a have gotten me riled up,” naming decision but consid-
his U.S. Army officer com- different view of that. Some says Billy Coleburn, 52, a ers it a mistake. “It will always be Pickett to
mission shortly after the think it’s heritage. Others Blackstone native who pub- me,” says Leigh Hart, who
outbreak of the Civil War in think it’s hate.” lishes the local newspaper “If we could look back in was born and raised in Black-
1861. and is mayor of the town of hindsight, I would say leave it stone. “It will be Pickett for-
No one around Blackstone about 3,500 residents. alone,” Wilkinson says. “Be- ever.”
The push to rename Fort seems to know why the gov- cause what’s next? Are you