Should the Army Distance Itself from the Confederate Legacy?
On Monday, April 20, Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, wrote a letter to the Marine Corps that banned public displays of the Confederate Army flag. He wrote in his letter, “I have determined it is time to act to exclude from our Corps public displays of the battle flag carried by the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.”
This topic has been top of mind as the broader public wrestles with the Confederate legacy. You may recall the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, when far-right protesters protested the city’s decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, leader of the Confederate Army, from a city park. The white-nationalist protestors marched at night with tiki torches and chanted racist phrases such as, “Jews will not replace us.” The next day, a white nationalist rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protestors and killed Heather Heyer, a civil rights protestor.
In addition to the national discussion on whether monuments to Confederate generals should remain, a re-examination of Lee’s legacy has taken place. Gen. (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal opened his book, Leaders, with a chapter on his struggle with Lee’s legacy.
McChrystal wrote that at 63 years old, he threw away a portrait of Lee that was given to him by his wife nearly 40 years prior.
He claimed, “The darker side of Lee’s legacy, and the picture in my office, now communicated ideas about race and equality with which I sought no association. Down it came.”
McChrystal detailed the various factors that led to Lee’s difficult decision to fight against the Union and offered the most potent conclusion one could make about Lee.
McChrystal asserted, “In simply tying his decision to the course chosen by his native Virginia, he essentially passed the most important moral decision of his life to the popular vote of others. Soon he would find himself supporting the greatest evil in American history, slavery, and not only opposing, but ultimately trying to destroy, some of the very institutions and ideas he’d held dear.”
Some of the most notable Army installations are named after Confederate generals. And not even revered generals. Take one of the Army’s most well-known installations: Fort Bragg, North Carolina, named after Gen. Braxton Bragg of the Confederate Army. In President Ulysses Grant’s memoirs, he recounted a story — likely apocryphal — about Bragg’s tenure as both the quartermaster and commander.
History professor Terry Jones recounted the ordeal from Grant’s memoirs: “As commander, Bragg submitted an invoice to himself (as quartermaster) requesting supplies. Quartermaster Bragg refused to endorse the request, but Commander Bragg resubmitted it with additional information. When Quartermaster Bragg still refused to endorse the request, Commander Bragg finally sent all of the correspondence to his superior. Looking at the pile of paperwork, that officer threw up his hands in disbelief and cried out, ‘My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the Army, and now you are quarreling with yourself!’”
While some believe that removing Confederate monuments or renaming Army installations would erase our history or dishonor Southern heritage, Gen. Berger offers a different perspective. He wrote, “I am mindful that many people believe that flag to be a symbol of heritage or regional pride. But I am also mindful of the feelings of pain and rejection of those who inherited the cultural memory and present effects of the scourge of slavery in our country. My intent is not to judge the specific meaning anyone ascribes to that symbol or declare someone’s personally held view to be incorrect. Rather, I am focused solely on building a uniquely capable warfighting team whose members come from all walks of life and must learn to operate side-by-side. This symbol has shown it has the power to inflame feelings of division. I cannot have that division inside our Corps.”
With the momentum generated by Gen. Berger, it’s time for the Army to take action. First, the Army should mirror the Marine Corps commandant’s edict and ban the display of the Confederate Army’s flag from Army installations. Next, the Army should rename every installation named after a Confederate soldier with the names of U.S. Army soldiers who fought with distinction on behalf of the United States.
Making these changes won’t be easy or embraced by all, but the Army should move beyond the legacy of the Confederacy.
An Army spokesman said that the Army does not plan on implementing either of these proposals.
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Brennan Randel
@BrennanRandel
