Patricia Murphy: With return to ‘Fort Benning,’ Hegseth revives the worst of the past

Far more than just “a Confederate general” as he’s mostly known today, Henry Benning was an ardent white supremacist and avowed secessionist. He was so committed to preserving the slave trade in Southern states that Georgia dispatched him to the Virginia secession convention in 1861 to convince Virginia to follow Georgia into the Confederacy.

“What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession?” Benning said to the Virginia delegates, explaining, “It was a deep conviction that a separation from the North was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery.”

In the same speech, Benning declared that “the white race” is “superior in every way,” and warned that if free states had their way, there would eventually be “Black governors, Black judges, Black legislators, Black juries, Black witnesses, Black everything. Is it supposed to be that the white race will stand for that?”

Todd Groce, the president of the Georgia Historical Society, described Benning as a “mediocre general” and military strategist, as well as one of the most devoted slavery advocates in the country in his time. “There is no doubt that he was on the cutting edge early in the secession movement,” Groce said.

Even with that dark history, the move from Hegseth to resurrect the name Fort Benning is no surprise for anyone who has watched the defense secretary’s “war on woke” in the military, including the law passed by Congress in 2020, over President Donald Trump’s veto, to rename U.S. military bases that had been named for Confederate generals, including Henry Benning.

In a 2024 interview, Hegseth called the decision to change Fort Benning’s name to Fort Moore “garbage” and “crap.” On his first day as defense secretary, he pointedly referred to the base by its old name, Fort Benning. By choosing another soldier named Benning to name the base for — in this case Fred Benning — Hegseth could keep the old name he preferred, while also getting around the law that banned it in the first place.

Going back to Benning has also required much more than just dusting off the old stationery. It means redoing the most recent round of new signage, which cost roughly $5 million, along with stripping the names of the people Fort Moore had been named for — the late Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia. A Pentagon commission, which included Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, chose both Moores for the honor, and in so doing, made Fort Moore the only military base ever named to honor military families, along with soldiers.

Moore was a West Point graduate who, like Fred Benning, was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for valor. Moore also spent his entire 32-year career in the Army, including multiple postings at the Columbus base, along with combat tours in the Korean War and in Vietnam.

As a lieutenant colonel during the Vietnam War, Moore famously commanded a battalion during the Battle of Ia Drang. He was interviewed by a TV crew at the time, following days of brutal fighting, and held back tears as he talked about the men he’d lost. “Please convey to the American people what a tremendous fighting man we have here,” he said. “He is courageous, he is aggressive and he is kind.”

For all that Hal Moore did for the Army, his wife, Julia, may have done more. Along with raising the Moores’ five children and moving 28 times in 32 years, she supported other military families in ways that mattered profoundly.

After watching the horror of families receiving news of their soldier’s death from a telegram delivered by taxi during the Vietnam War, she advocated to have a chaplain and base leader deliver the news personally instead. If you know about that somber ritual that is now Pentagon policy, now you know who pushed for the change, too.

The Moores remained so close to the Army in their retirement that they are both buried at the Columbus base among the men Moore called “my troopers.”

Just before Hegseth changed the name of the base from Fort Moore back to Fort Benning, he also announced that the former Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which was briefly Fort Liberty, would be Fort Bragg again, too. It wouldn’t be named for the Confederate general, of course, but for an unrelated soldier named “Bragg.” You see where this is going.

The secretary has said over and over that he wants to turn the military’s attention from silly fights over names and symbols to focusing on “the warrior ethos.” He could take his own advice.

The Army can do so much better than going back to a base originally named for Henry Benning. With Hal and Julia Moore, they already had.