rid assets of names
symbols displays monuments
paraphernalia
Congress finally parted company with the myth of the noble Confederate in 2021. It overrode a presidential veto to order the Defense Department to rid its assets of “names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia” that commemorate the Confederate States of America. The legislation established a commission that brought forward new names for nine Army installations in the South.
The main event of the renaming project unfolds on Thursday in Virginia, when Fort Lee is rechristened Fort Gregg-Adams. This change derives its emotional power from the fact that the saint of the lavishly racist Lost Cause is being replaced by two African Americans who served in the Army during the Jim Crow era.
From the Confederate Tributes Are Losing Their Patron Saint By Brent Staples in the New York Times, 4/27/2023.
I have long wondered why the losers got forts.
Fort Knox was a Revolutionary War General.
Fort Jackson is named after General Andrew Jackson of the War of 1812, NOT that Stonewall feller.
Bragg, Hood, Benning were all the loser side.
I was told, as a kid, that this happened during World War 1 for the sake of unity.
The story as recounted in this article relates a story that is sadder than I ever imagined.
When I sent off to the National Archives for my Great Great Grandfather’s Civil War records, the first document in the pile was his Casualty Sheet listing him as Killed In Action.
Which surprised me as he was NOT killed in the Civil War but was badly wounded and captured after the Battle of Gaines Mill.
It benefited me greatly that he was not dead as he didn’t get married and have offspring, that led to me being born, until he returned home.
When someone gets around to apologizing for shooting Great Great Grampa, I’ll consider listening to it.
No Haiku For You 