Jun 8, 2020

Those 10 U.S. Army Bases with Confederate Names?


The U.S. Army is reconsidering it's decision to leave the names intact...including Alabama's Ft. Rucker.

POLTICO reports


Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy is now "open" to renaming the service's 10 bases and facilities that are named after Confederate leaders, an Army spokesperson told POLITICO, in a reversal of the service's previous position.


Defense Secretary Mark Esper also supports the discussion, the spokesperson said.


"The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army are open to a bi-partisan discussion on the topic," Army spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky said in a statement Monday.

UPDATE: It is located within a few blocks of my last home in Birmingham, but I never knew "Rucker Place" is where the "Rucker" of "Fort Rucker" lived after the war. The "Historic Rucker House" has been a wedding venue since 2002. Interestingly, the website "History" section for the house describes it as having been a "private residence", but never explains the Rucker who lived there was a confederate officer who fought against The United States in the War:

"History

Rucker Place is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Built in 1900, Rucker Place served as a family home for the first half of the twentieth century.  It then saw several decades of duty as a doctor's office.  Today it is one of Birmingham's premier wedding and event destinations."

It is a beautiful house.
ADDED: You know the rabbit holes you can fall into online? HERE is a letter Rucker wrote in 1905 from his Birmingham home to a fellow confederate veteran in Montgomery. He does not mention the house, but briefly talks about slavery.

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