A Question of Treason? Confederate Generals and U.S. Army Post Names

Abstract

This thesis explores the process by which present-day U.S. Army posts came to be named for Confederate officers of the Civil War through an examination of U.S. Army regulations dictating how and for whom installations are to be named as well as surveying the history of each of the current posts named for a Confederate officer. By searching Army regulations, published histories, and newspaper articles the attitudes of local communities and military leaders are ascertained so as to better understand how men who rebelled against the United States are now honored by the Army through one of the most selective means available. This thesis concludes that while financial concerns played an immediate role in the introduction of Army posts to Southern communities, the spread of Lost Cause mythology and its acceptance by U.S. military leaders, especially after the Spanish-American War, created an atmosphere that encouraged the Army to honor those who had been viewed as traitors only one generation prior.