Fort Rucker in Alabama will officially be renamed next month, replacing the confederate name Rucker with the name of a decidedly NOT confederate Medal of Honor winner. The renaming ceremony will take place two weeks before Confederate Memorial Day, an Alabama state holiday.
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| CWO4 Novosel |
The new name honors Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr., a Medal of Honor recipient with ties to Army Aviation, the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, and the Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama.
The renaming will take place during a ceremony April 10 at Veterans Park on post. The ceremony will be open to invited guests but not to the general public.
The change is one part of a nine-fort renaming plan to remove confederate names from U.S. military posts.
Subsequent to the Battle of Nashville, Rucker was wounded and captured; although his left arm was amputated, this did not impede his future achievements.
Rucker was a hardcore confederate. The Birminghwiki entry about him says he worked with KKK Founder Nathan Bedford Forrest after the war, and lived in the Birmingham home he built on 12th Avenue South.
After the war he returned to Memphis and the railroad business, working with Nathan Bedford Forrest. In 1869 he moved to Alabama as superintendent of a railroad. Rucker relocated to Birmingham, Alabama in the early 1880s, building his home in the neighborhood now called Five Points.[6] He worked with former General Joseph E. Johnston and became an industrial magnate, dealing with coal, steel, sales and land as well as being in the banking business.[2]
The Episcopalian Rucker was married twice, first to Mary Adele Woodfin (1855–1883) in 1873, and after her death to Mary T. Bentley (1860–1941) in 1886. He had a son and three daughters with his first wife.[2] He died on April 24, 1924 and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. Fort Rucker, Alabama, is named in his honor.[1][3] The United Daughters of the Confederacy named a chapter after him, the Gen. Edmond Winchester Rucker Chapter 2534.[2]
Rucker's name was used when his former home became a Birmingham restaurant, the "Historic Rucker Place". It eventually became a wedding venue. There's no indication that the owners of the property will change the name.
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