It's intensely funny in an ironic sense that actually effective Confederate generals (Longstreet, Jackson, Johnston) never had bases named after them—but some of the most incompetent officers the United States has ever had (Bragg, Hood) did. Says a lot about the priorities of the Lost Causers tbh.
There was a Longstreet Boulevard on Ft Bragg. It bothered me less because he was a good general and because he reformed. But I was still glad to see the name changed last time I was there.
The better someone like Longstreet looks the worse Lee does, and god knows they couldn’t have that, historical accuracy be damned. (Also, of course, Longstreet was damnatio memoriae’d due to his overseeing a racially-integrated polity and militia as a Republican in Louisiana after the war.)
Yeah, Longstreet was one of the few top Confederate generals who actually tried somewhat to make amends for what he did after the war. Can’t have that, can we? Anyway let’s name a base after Virginia’s greatest Civil War general: George Thomas, the Rock of Chickimauga himself.
Hooah!
It's amazing that Bragg had two bases named after him.
Bragg especially, there's like no way you can sugarcoat how bad he was or claim it didn't matter. I've always wondered how the base naming happened but don't care enough to look it up.
I like to joke that we *should* have a base named after Braxton Bragg...in honor of his critical service to the UNION war effort. Thanks for accelerating the capture of Atlanta by a year, Braggy! 😉
And Leonids Polk. Truly even more incompetent than Bragg.
To be fair, naming a base after the competent ones would probably be a much harder sell (esp when union veterans were still around)
It’s because they were popular local politicians. It’s what Jefferson Davis couldn’t fire Hood.
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Pickett tried to start a war with Great Britain like 3 years before the Civil War over a pig farm 🤣
I dont think they had any real chance before his appointment/after losing Vicksburg but i dont think its too much an exaggeration to say Hood lost the war for the Confederacy
Longstreet was far from perfect. But he was decent and reformed enough by confederate standards to be considered a traitor.
In what world is a base named after the losing side's Generals.
It makes sense if they're choosing names based on whoever contributed most to a Union victory.
Right?
Longstreet actually deserves a base named after him. He is reviled by the lost cause set. Read the most recent book about him. It’s quite good.
I guess that’s the compromise? We honor them for their contribution to the Union cause.
So true tbh
Gary Gallagher tells a story about one of Bragg's soldiers mocking him to his face and then vanishing into a crowd before the irate Bragg could punish him.
Problematic fav
Giving incompetent enemy generals medals is incredible propaganda. I’m surprised the Ukrainians didn’t do this during the pre meat grinder days of 22 to 23 when they were still doing funny stuff.
Would Lincoln have won reelection in 1864 if Hood hadn't done such a terrible job defending Atlanta? Counter-factual: Would McClellan have beaten Lincoln if Joe Johnston had never been replaced by Hood?
Supporters of the lost cause loathed Longstreet for his post-war actions, didn’t they? He was in Grant’s admin, directed and defended a bi-racial militia, etc. Very few memorials or statues of Longstreet, particularly in his home state; ones that exist are recent.
Maybe there were secret Union agents?
Didn't Sherman call his order to a battery to fire the volley that killed Leonidas Polk, one of his biggest mistakes?
Fun thing about this is it is for the same reason! Jefferson Davis deliberately tried to spread out commands between states for political reasons. When the USG wanted to put army bases in the south and wanted the acquiescence of Southerners, they picked Confederates from those states.
John Brown Gordon got an army base named after him for his actions in a lighter uniform than grey is my understanding.
Rucker too.
Naming bases after them and erecting memorials was always about white supremacy.
Buncha losers celebrating loserdom
...and explains why Lost Causers were so eager to vote for a lifelong loser like Trump. They venerate epic, world-historical failures and make them the mascots for their own, far more modest, failed lives.
I suspect Longstreet never got that sort of recognition because the Lost Causers were furious over how he not only made his peace with the Yankees but served in several Federal posts, including being minister to the Ottoman Empire, in the postwar years.
Also, I always used to think Fort Jackson in SC was named after Stonewall, but it turns out it was named after the other famous Jackson, Andrew, who was born on the Carolina border.
I mean the entire “lost cause” idea is a massive logical paradox… Why are they so insistent on celebrating losers? The south… LOST. Especially when you consider they’re the same types of people who say that “America, love it or leave it” BS. Alanis Morissette’s Irony senses must be on overload…
It's not just the Lost Cause, it's the Loser's Cause. They have no sympathy for winners, even temporary short-term winners.
Bragg is the funniest. Buddy got absolutely rinsed every single time he had a major battlefield command.
James Longstreet being perhaps the Confederacy’s best general and largely scapegoated by the south after the war shows just how much all these people truly didn’t know ball
Added to that Longstreet became a Republican, supported reconstruction, equal rights, and had a black militia fire on a white mob.
plus Tom Berenger played the fuck outta him in Gettysburg
From my limited interaction with Southerners, it also appears that Jackson looms a lot larger in the popular imagination than Lee or Hood, so it's not even a case of selecting popular generals.
yeah i knew someone who went to VMI and his facebook banner picture was a picture of their library with a quote from jackson. gross shit. at least he went antifa once trump became president so progress?
Yeah just from a pure performance standpoint, Hood and Bragg make absolutely no sense
Losers self-identify for who they venerate. Losers then, losers now.