últimas notícias

Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Named for: Gen. Braxton Bragg

Fort Bragg, known as the home of Airborne and Special Operations forces, is the largest United States Army base, with approximately 57,000 military personnel, 11,000 civilian employees and 23,000 family members.

It was established on Sept. 4, 1918, and named Camp Bragg, in honor of Gen. Braxton Bragg, a native of North Carolina and a West Point graduate who fought in the Mexican-American War and later for the Confederacy, commanding the Army of Tennessee during the Civil War.

David H. Petraeus, a retired general and former C.I.A. director, is among those who have argued that the base should be renamed. Writing in The Atlantic, he said that not only was Bragg an undistinguished military commander, but that he and other Confederates also committed treason and the “Army should not brook any celebration of those who betrayed their country.”

Fort Polk, Louisiana

Named for: Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk

Fort Polk, an Army base in west-central Louisiana, was established in 1941 during the Louisiana Maneuvers, a series of Army exercises in the run-up to World War II. It was named for Leonidas Polk, a West Point graduate, planter, slave owner and Episcopal bishop who began the Civil War as a major general in the Confederate Army, according to the National Park Service.

He was a corps commander during the Battles of Shiloh, Perryville and Murfreesboro, and was later removed from command by Braxton Bragg, for whom Fort Bragg was named. Polk was scouting Union positions with his staff on June 14, 1864, when he was killed by a cannon shot near Marietta, Ga., according to the Park Service.