In reinstating 'Fort Bragg,' the Army hopes to skirt a ban on Confederate namesakes

Less than two years after Fort Bragg was renamed Fort Liberty to drop the name of a Confederate general, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered that the North Carolina Army base revert to its former name.

Hegseth had telegraphed the move for weeks, even referring to the base as "Fort Bragg" as he talked with reporters in front of the Pentagon after arriving for his first day on the job. President Donald Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail that he'd change the name back.

But what hadn't been clear until now is how they might go about that, given that Congress has banned the military from naming things for Confederates,, and the base
was originally named for Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.

Hegseth’s order lists another Bragg as the namesake: Pfc. Roland L. Bragg of Maine, who was awarded the Silver Star for valor and fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

"Bragg is back," Hegseth said in a brief video released by the Pentagon that showed him signing the order aboard an Air Force jet.

In the adjacent city of Fayetteville, the second name change for the nation’s largest Army base is causing some whiplash, said Mayor Mitch Colvin.

"Less than a couple years later we’re back changing it again, and what if the next administration comes in and rechanges it, and that just puts our community at a disadvantage," he said.

The name "Fort Liberty" made good sense, he said.

"To me, naming it after a concept and idea that we all embrace and believe in is an easy fix to a real, complicated, sensitive problem," Colvin said. "We're in a country full of diverse people, and at some point we're going to have to embrace that and use it as a strength and not a dividing point."

The base had been called Bragg for more than a century and was among several bases founded as part of the military buildup for World War I. The War Department decided to name those in the south for Confederate figures.

City of Fayetteville

Historians, though, say Braxton Bragg was one of the worst generals of the Civil War, and they note that he was a slave owner and traitor to the U.S.

In 2020, Congress overrode Trump's veto and passed a bill ordering changes to nine Army bases that had been named for Confederate generals. That set off a yearslong process that included local community input and the creation of a federal naming commission.

Colvin said it's hard not to be suspicious of the way the name is being changed back.

"Black people in America have been hoodwinked and tricked so many times that at some point you start to lose faith in what this country really stands for in some respects," he said.

Connor Williams was lead historian for the naming commission and is co-author of "A Promise Delivered: Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation's Military Bases," an upcoming book on the people the other bases were renamed for. Those include the first female, Black and Latino service members given that honor.

In a sense, Williams said, the official story that the renaming is for a different Bragg is validation.

"This confirms the Naming Commission's mission because this was not renamed to commemorate Braxton Bragg, the Confederate general, but rather Roland Bragg, World War II soldier," he said.

"We were stood up by a bipartisan group in Congress, with overwhelming majorities, overcame a presidential veto, and our goal was to end Confederate commemoration in the armed forces, and that is still the case with this name change."

But it’s important, he said, that the military do the work of fully explaining how Roland Bragg is the right namesake for an Army base so important that its unofficial nickname is the "Center of the Military Universe."

"We named this fort after liberty, after great consultation with the staff at the installation, with the local community," Williams said. "Liberty was the name that they wanted, and so now it's really up to the Trump administration to really honor the World War II service that they’ve said this is commemorating."

He says that as a historian and also as a grandson of a World War II veteran who served for 500 days of continuous combat, he understands the sacrifices soldiers like Roland Bragg made.

U.S. Army

"I just think that it needs to be clear that this is truly that, and not a wink and a nod to honor one of the Confederacy's worst generals, hated by his own troops, and often (rated) by military historians as one of the worst generals of the entire Civil War."

There is no question Roland Bragg’s service was exemplary. In addition to the Silver Star, Bragg was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he suffered in the Battle of the Bulge.

According to his 1999 obituary, he was captured by the Germans, but one of his captors was a fellow Mason, who let him escape.

In the obituary, one of his daughters, Linda French, said he stole a German ambulance to escape. "They were being fired at the whole time they went," she said.

The Pentagon order to give his name to the base said he used the ambulance to drive a wounded American soldier to a hospital.

After the war, Bragg operated a sawmill and moved houses.

In a brief phone interview, French said she was surprised to learn this week from a reporter of the honor for her father.

Col. Mary Ricks, a spokeswoman for the 18th Airborne Corps, which includes Fort Bragg, said it was aware of the directive to change the base name.

"We are certainly leaning forward with that," she said. "We think that renaming Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg is going to represent an opportunity for us to honor one of 18th Airborne Corps' own heroes, and that's Private First Class Roland L. Bragg. He served in the 17th Airborne Division, which was a part of the 18th Airborne during that time, and we are proud to honor his legacy and really proud to honor all those who have called Fort Bragg home."

Williams, the historian, noted that the work it takes for a base to change its name is significant, and a reasonable concern is the cost of another a name change, especially given the Trump administration’s focus on reducing government spending.

"When we did our research, Fort Bragg officials estimated would cost $6.3 million to make this shift," he said. "We thought that price was well worth the cost to end Confederate commemoration in the United States Army, and now one would guess it will cost also $6.3 million to change it back."

A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Transportation said it spent $160,000 to change about 80 highway signs to "Liberty" and estimated it would take more than $200,000 to switch back because highway improvements have added more signs.

He said North Carolina taxpayers paid for the first round of changes, and the state hopes the military will cover the switch back.

The return to Bragg may just be the opening shot in the administration’s efforts to revert to the previous base names. Hegseth has said he wanted to change all the names back. And after signing the renaming order, he typed a brief post on X: "Bragg now," he wrote. "More to come."

This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
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