Ft. Lee to become Ft. Lee
Ft. Lee, Virginia, was named for Robert E. Lee, one of its most famous sons – but a Confederate due to the fact his state joined the Confederacy.
Fort Lee — initially named after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee — was briefly changed to Fort Gregg-Adams under President Joe Biden’s administration in its efforts to remove any connection to the Confederacy from current military bases.
Following the recommendations of a special committee, Fort Lee was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams to honor Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams. Both joined the Army prior to its desegregation, with Gregg rising to become the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics for the Army while Adams commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory during the Second World War.
It was the first Army base in U.S. history to be named for Black Americans.
I am admittedly biased – we have enough heroes in our military pantheon that nothing the military has should ever be named for less than a military hero. I know logistics is what really wins wars, and soldiers love mail – but even so, fighting is what the military s supposed to do, right?
Well, Ft. Lee is about to be named for a warfighter, and a damned good one.
However, under Trump, the fort will yet again be the home of another milestone. It will be renamed for Pvt. Fitz Lee, a Buffalo soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Spanish-American War.
Born the same year Congress created standing Black units, Lee, a Virginia native, enlisted in M Troop, 10th Cavalry in 1889. After nearly a decade with the Army, Lee, serving as a private, found himself bound for Cuba after the U.S. declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898.
On June 30, 1898, Cuban freedom fighters and American soldiers disembarked the steamship Florida, attempting an amphibious landing at Tayabacoa, Cuba. Almost immediately, the landing party found themselves engaged in enemy fire.
Ambushed, the landing group soon retreated, leaving behind at least 16 wounded to become prisoners of war.
After several rescue attempts failed, Lee, Cpl. George H. Wanton, Pvt. Dennis Bell, Sgt. William H. Thompkins and Lt. George P. Ahern stepped forward and volunteered.
Wading ashore, the five soldiers managed to surprise the Spanish, successfully freeing their wounded comrades.
All but Ahern were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions in Tayabacoa, with Lee receiving his while hospitalized at Fort Bliss, Texas. His time in Cuba had left him with severely limited vision, swollen limbs and abdominal pain that caused him to be bedridden for three months, according to NPS.
On July 5, 1899, a few days after receiving the Medal of Honor, Lee was medically discharged from the Army. Military Times
H/t to Jeff LPH for this one.
A man has no greater love than this…. I say this Trump’s a good logistician, even if we all know the loggie is the one who is likely to win the war.
I don’t care who Fort Lee is named after as long as it’s named after a man that has a connection to the wonderful land of Virginia in the land of DIXIE…and I’m a Yankee Boy from Minnesota.
I have a special place in my heart for the noble south because I was very nearly born there in 1957. My pappy was offered a chance to work with an agency of the United States Government that was located in a suburb of Washington that was very close to the birthplace of one Robert “Marse Robert” E. Lee. Had my dad accepted that offer, yours truly would have been born in the land of cotton, most likely in Arlington, VA. Oh, how I wish my daddy had gone that way in his professional career. I would not be able to tell y’all what he done…but I’d be able to say “EEEEAAAAHHHHH” without being ironic about it.
Wonder if anyone has done a deep dive into Pvt Fitz Lee’s Family Tree? There was another “Fitz” Lee from the Old Dominion State that made quite a name for himself and there is a very good chance that there is a connection between the two, if for no other reason, Pvt Lee maybe was named for the “other” Fitz Lee. No matter Pvt Lee’s race or background, he was a War Hero and deserved his Awards of The MoH.
I didn’t agree with all of the name changes in the beginning, the push for a “feelz good” distorted the reason the installations were named what they were in the beginning. A continuation of Ol’ Abe’s idea of “…to bind up the Nation’s wounds…” but more importantly, to get the massive amounts of “good ol’ boys” to join the the fight against The Kaiser that would be necessary. Many Southerners were opposed to getting involved in a “foreign entanglement” not so much in opposition to being part of the “Yankee” Army, but because Washington (a Southerner and Revered Man) had warned against such, but also because many of them had first hand accounts of the destruction of war. Many a fight broke out when majority Southern based units hit France in 1917/18 and heard the Brits and French refer to them as “Yanks”.
A brief history on the other “Fitz” Lee.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/fitzhugh-lee
Robert E. Lee was a great General and human being.
The Civil War was NECESSARY then and is more necessary now. The Confederacy was an excellent remedy to the problem.
As Confederate descendant, I DEMAND REPARATIONS.
I DEMAND REPARATIONS too! Somebody needs to pay for my shit!
You can’t change history no matter who it’s named after.
And you can’t erase it either.
The Nazis would disagree if they could. They have been toned down to the point where anyone that is mildly disagreeable or opposed to your point of view is now a Nazi. They conquered most of Europe and committed despicable acts of the Holocaust, genocide, mass torture, slavery and others systemically on little more than whim. At least 40 million people died, many murdered helplessly and without pity.
Nowadays to be labeled a Nazi all you have to do is call out the National Guard to put down a riot, deport a foreign gang member or throw up a tariff on China. Those used to be normal government functions. So yeah, ignorance can drown out history to the point where it molests the victims and murders them twice.
Just look at the left’s guide to thinking in life, it’s titled “Anyone Who Disagrees With Me is a Nazi”.
Or a racist, bigot, xenophobe, white supremacist, homophobe, transphobe, or nationalist (I still don’t get how this one is bad. Seems like we should be proud of our country and what it stands for! -maybe I just answered my own question).
Indeed, says much of them:
I wish that they would never have changed them anyway. It was a bunch of “feel goods” about nothing. It didn’t change a damn thing. Now to change them back.?.?
Just think of what this little mental exercise has cost us, the taxpayers! Every piece of paper with the Forts name stamped on it has to be replaced, again!
The only one that bothers me is me is Benning to Moore, back to Benning. I had no problem with Benning to start with, but now to change it back -from Moore- is a kick in the jewels to Hal Moore’s family. Who are still around.
If we can name a helicopter “Apache”, why not a base “Robert E Lee”?
As far as I know, no confederate was ever credibly accused of eating US soldiers.