CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The names of U.S. military bases, posts, ships, streets and more with Confederate ties will be changed in 2023, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.
This includes Fort Bragg, which will be renamed Fort Liberty in commemoration of the American value of liberty. Fort Bragg is currently named after Confederate general Braxton Bragg.
Braxton Bragg is "considered one of the worst generals of the Civil War; most of the battles he was involved in ended in defeat and resulted in tremendous losses for the Confederate Army; highly consequential to the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy," the Naming Commission wrote.
William A. LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment has directed all DOD organizations to begin full implementation of the Naming Commission's recommendations following a mandatory 90-day waiting period. The new names were approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in September.
The project to rename nine U.S. Army posts honoring Confederate soldiers will cost an estimated $21 million, according to the Associated Press.
While Army bases are the most visible examples of Confederate memorials, many installations have street names or buildings that will be changed, the DOD said, including a large Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The DOD said in a news release Thursday that some bases in the South were named after Confederate soldiers as a sign of reconciliation after the Civil War.
"Some Army bases, established in the build-up and during World War I, were named for Confederate officers in an effort to court support from the local populations in the South," the statement says. "It was also the height of Jim Crow Laws in the South, so there was no consideration for the feelings of African Americans who had to serve at bases named after men who fought to defend slavery."
The Naming Commission issued its first report in May 2022, which addressed renaming Army bases.
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