{"id":52156,"date":"2023-10-27T17:34:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T17:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/10\/27\/with-eisenhower-renaming-armys-100-years-honoring-confederates-ends\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:16:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:16:46","slug":"with-eisenhower-renaming-armys-100-years-honoring-confederates-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2023\/10\/27\/with-eisenhower-renaming-armys-100-years-honoring-confederates-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"With Eisenhower renaming, Army\u2019s 100+ years honoring Confederates ends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORT EISENHOWER, Ga. \u2014 When this installation\u2019s former namesake invaded Maryland, the U.S. Army shot him five times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite receiving five bullets at Antietam in 1862 \u2014 and three additional wounds in other battles \u2014 as he rose from captain to major general in the Confederate army during the Civil War, former slaveowner John Brown Gordon survived to become the head of the Ku Klux Klan<\/a> in Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a member of the U.S. Senate, Gordon helped negotiate the end of Reconstruction in 1877, which rehabilitated the white Southern elite and allowed a new era of racial oppression to emerge. A two-term governor of Georgia, Gordon was also the first commander of the United Confederate Veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a Friday morning ceremony just outside of Augusta, the Army eschewed Gordon\u2019s legacy in favor of that of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the post\u2019s new namesake. Eisenhower <\/b>helped lead the destruction of Nazi Germany as a five-star general in World War II, and oversaw key racial integration milestones later as president. In 1957, Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas and federalized the state\u2019s National Guard when the governor attempted to block nine Black students from attending Little Rock Central High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth spoke of Eisenhower\u2019s achievements in a speech accompanying the ceremony, which members of the former president\u2019s family attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s renaming marks the final such installation-level move for the Army, culminating a nearly three-year process that began when Congress\u2019 fiscal 2021 defense policy bill established the bipartisan Naming Commission to rename the military\u2019s places and objects that honored Confederates. Four members of the commission attended the final redesignation at Eisenhower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wormuth\u2019s remarks also acknowledged how the renaming process emerged from the \u201cunrest and significant division in our country\u201d that followed racial justice protests sparked by the 2020 death of George Floyd. But she celebrated how the new namesakes \u201cunquestionably represent\u201d what the Army wants to see from its future soldiers and leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Four members of the Naming Commission \u2014 from left to right: businessman and former Army drill sergeant Jerry Buchanan, retired Navy Adm. Michelle Howard, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Lawrence Romo and retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule \u2014 pose after the redesignation ceremony for Fort Eisenhower, Georgia, on October 27, 2023. The event was the final base renaming event. (Davis Winkie\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The vice chair of the commission, retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, voiced a similar sentiment in a Wednesday phone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never too late to recognize true American heroes…that represent the values of this great country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following Army installations received new names<\/a> this year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n