President Trump demanded that Republicans in Congress reject stripping Confederates names off of Army bases despite Senate Republicans already voting in favor of an amendment pushed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
‘Seriously failed presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, just introduced an Amendment on the renaming of many of our legendary Military Bases from which we trained to WIN two World Wars,’ Trump wrote. ‘Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this!’
The president was late by nearly a day, as Republican senators in the Armed Service Committee voted Wedensday night in the affirmative for the amendment, according to Roll Call. It gives the military three years to rename bases and other entities currently using names related to the Confederacy.
The vote was taken behind closed doors and was a voice vote, adding the measure to the annual Pentagon policy bill – the Defense Authorization Act. The act must still be approved by the full Senate and also by the House.
In committee, just one Republican would have needed to vote with Democrats to approve the amendment – the panel is 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats – but the absence of a roll call vote suggests many more did.
The vote came hours after Trump tweeted furiously that he will ‘not even consider’ renaming Forts Bragg, Hood, Lee and others.
The move puts the Republican senators on a collision course with Trump, who White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany suggested would veto any legislation that renamed the bases. She claimed it was an insult to people who had served abroad to rename bases that they left from.
Settting up a White House-versus-Congress showdown, the top House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, said he Thursday he was ‘not opposed’ to renaming the bases.
Trump has put a battle of the bases at the center of an escalating culture war.
He is facing accusations of insensitivity by planning his first comeback rally on Friday 19, date of the Juneteenth commemoration of the end of slavery, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, scene of a horrific racist massacre in 1921
The 10 bases are named for a group that includes slave owners, officers who left the U.S. Army to join the rebels, and at least one general who ordered the execution of unarmed prisoners.
President Trump lashed out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren for pitching an amendment that would rename military bases named after Confederate figures. The president then demanded that Republican senators follow his lead, after a number of them already voted in favor of Warren’s proposal
![The president made his stance known in a tweet, again calling Elizabeth Warren 'Pocahontas' a controversial nickname he gave her when she was running for president](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/19/29501210-8410819-image-a-39_1591901356166.jpg)
The president made his stance known in a tweet, again calling Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas’ a controversial nickname he gave her when she was running for president
![Sen. Elizabeth Warren (left) proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would give the military three years to rename bases, ships, planes and other entities that were named after figures who fought against the United States in the Civil War](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/20/29501888-8410819-image-a-49_1591902086404.jpg)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (left) proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would give the military three years to rename bases, ships, planes and other entities that were named after figures who fought against the United States in the Civil War
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/15/29459940-8410819-image-a-96_1591884405314.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/15/29459934-8410819-image-a-98_1591884405425.jpg)
![President Trump sent out a trio of tweets just before Wednesday's White House briefing saying he was against renaming 10 Army bases that are currently named for Confederate leaders](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/15/29459938-8410819-President_Trump_sent_out_a_trio_of_tweets_just_before_Wednesday_-a-97_1591884405420.jpg)
President Trump sent out a trio of tweets just before Wednesday’s White House briefing saying he was against renaming 10 Army bases that are currently named for Confederate leaders
![Vote: Elizabeth Warren pushed the move to remove the Confederate generals' names in the Armed Services Committee, whose Republican majority includes Trump ultra-loyalist Tom Cotton, a former soldier who suggested sending in troops with illegal orders to quell protests](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/15/29491240-8410819-Vote_Elizabeth_Warren_pushed_the_move_to_remove_the_Confederate_-a-99_1591884405936.jpg)
![Vote: Elizabeth Warren pushed the move to remove the Confederate generals' names in the Armed Services Committee, whose Republican majority includes Trump ultra-loyalist Tom Cotton, a former soldier who suggested sending in troops with illegal orders to quell protests](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29491186-8410819-Vote_Elizabeth_Warren_pushed_the_move_to_remove_the_Confederate_-a-7_1591896653058.jpg)
Vote: Elizabeth Warren pushed the move to remove the Confederate generals’ names in the Armed Services Committee, whose Republican majority includes Trump ultra-loyalist Tom Cotton, a former soldier who suggested sending in troops with illegal orders to quell protests
![House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said Thursday that he's 'not opposed' to a line in a defense appropriations bill making its way through Congress that would compel the military to rename bases and other entities currently named for Confederates](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/19/29500930-8410819-image-a-38_1591899696440.jpg)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said Thursday that he’s ‘not opposed’ to a line in a defense appropriations bill making its way through Congress that would compel the military to rename bases and other entities currently named for Confederates
![President Trump also tweeted this Thursday, likely referring to the push to take down Confederate monuments and rename bases currently named for Confederate figures](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/19/29494790-8410819-image-a-40_1591901369732.jpg)
President Trump also tweeted this Thursday, likely referring to the push to take down Confederate monuments and rename bases currently named for Confederate figures
‘These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom,’ Trump tweeted. ‘The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars,’ the president continued.
‘Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations,’ Trump said.
But later on Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is Republican-controlled, voted the opposite way.
Its Republican members include Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator and former Army officer who caused outrage by demanding ‘sending in the troops’ with illegal ‘no quarter’ orders to quell protests.
But they also include a series of senators facing strong Democratic challenges, including Iowa’s Joni Ernst, Arizona’s Martha McSally, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Georgia’s David Perdue.
A voice vote indicates that the amendment passed without objection, but it also means there’s no accounting for who on the committee voted aye and who voted nay, if anyone.
If all the Democrats voted in the affirmative, they’d need just one Republican for the amendment to pass, however passage via a voice vote indicates a larger group of senators said yes.
The ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests that have taken place all across the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death have renewed discussions on the appropriateness of memorializing Confederate figures.
Currently 10 Army bases are named after Confederate leaders.
Southern states that joined the Confederacy during the Civil War-era did so in order to keep their status as slave states.
On Monday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told Politico that he was ‘open’ to renaming these 10 facilities.
Politico reported that Defense Secretary Mark Esper – who has been at odds with Trump over how to deal with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations – also supported the discussion.
The Warren amendment, according to CNN, would extend further than renaming the 10 bases and would create an independent commission that would develop a plan to remove the name of Confederates from bases, installations, facilities, ships and planes.
One of the ships in the Navy’s fleet, for example, is called the Chancellorsville and was named after the battle of Chancellorsville, a Civil War engagement that was considered Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory, according to the Navy Times.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany opened up her Wednesday briefing reading a statement from Trump that mirrored his tweets, which he had pushed out minutes before she took to the podium.
McEnany was asked if the president supported the Navy’s move to ban Confederate flags from flying at its bases and on ships.
She said she wasn’t sure of his position on that.
‘He does, as I noted at the top of the briefing, fervently stand against the renaming of our forts,’ McEnany answered.
McEnany said that the ‘great American fortresses’ were important because they respresented the last places war dead spent time in the U.S. before fighting in battles in ‘Europe and Afghanistan and Iraq.’
‘And to suggest that these forts are somehow inherently racist and their names need to be changed is a complete disrespect to the men and women,’ she argued. ‘For the last bit of American land that they saw before they went overseas and lost their lives were these forts.’
McEnany was also asked if the president would veto a bill from Congress that changed the name of a base from a Confederate general to a Union general, the side that won the Civil War, and represents the modern-day United States.
‘The president will not be signing legislation that will be renaming American forts,’ she said.
A reporter then pointed to an op-ed writtten by Gen. David Petraeus, who had argued that bases shouldn’t be named after people who fought against the United States.
Petraeus also pointed out that many of the Confederates honored, like Gen. Braxton Bragg, were notoriously bad at their jobs.
‘Fort Bragg is known for the heroes within it,’ McEnany responded.
The president has long sided with the ‘heritage’ argument to keep Confederate monuments and memorials erected.
This is how he got in hot water in August 2017, standing up for demonstrators – made up of neo-Nazis, KKK members and other white supremacists – in Charlottesville, Virginia, who wanted the city’s Robert E. Lee statue to remain.
‘You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,’ Trump told reporters referencing, first, the Unite To Right protesters, and then the counter-protesters who came out.
One of the counter-protesters, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, had been moved down on the streets of Charlottesville by a neo-Nazi, who is now serving a life-long prison term.
‘You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue,’ Trump said of the Lee monument.
The president then compared Lee to George Washington, the country’s first president who led the Revolutionary War troops – but who was also a slave-owner.
Trump has put a battle of the bases at the center of an escalating culture war.
While the country has been in discord over the death of Floyd, the president has been accused of dog-whistling racists. Beyond his support for the Confederate-named bases he announced Wednesday that campaign rallies would begin again.
The first would be held next Friday – Juneteenth – which marks when the last slaves, in Texas, were read the Emancipation Proclamation, the document that informed them they were free.
The campaign rally will take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city known for one of the country’s most horrific episodes of racial violence.
![Ft. Hood Military Base in Fort Hood, Texas, headquarters of III Corps. Named on opening in 1942 for General John Bell Hood](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/15/29459930-8410819-Ft_Hood_Military_Base_in_Fort_Hood_Texas_headquarters_of_III_Cor-a-102_1591884407741.jpg)
Ft. Hood Military Base in Fort Hood, Texas, headquarters of III Corps. Named on opening in 1942 for General John Bell Hood
![Kayleigh McEnany even brought up Joe Biden, who got in political trouble last June for boasting that he'd been able to work with segregationists while in the U.S. Senate](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/07/29461590-8407761-Kayleigh_McEnany_even_brought_up_Joe_Biden_who_got_in_political_-a-3_1591856279565.jpg)
Kayleigh McEnany even brought up Joe Biden, who got in political trouble last June for boasting that he’d been able to work with segregationists while in the U.S. Senate
Racist past of Confederate generals with bases named after them including Leonidas Polk who owned 400 slaves, KKK leader John Brown Gordon and Henry Benning who feared a ‘land in possession of the blacks’
![Henry L. Benning (pictured) owned at least 89 slaves on his 3,000 acres of land](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480004-8410819-Henry_L_Benning_pictured_owned_at_least_89_slaves_on_his_3_000_a-a-8_1591896653067.jpg)
Henry L. Benning (pictured) owned at least 89 slaves on his 3,000 acres of land
HENRY L. BENNING – FORT BENNING, ALABAMA-GEORGIA BORDER
The home of the United States Army Infantry School, Fort Benning was named in 1917 for plantation owner and Confederate general Henry L. Benning.
Benning was a Georgia lawyer who became an outspoken defender of slavery and advocate for secession in the lead-up to the Civil War.
His father owned more than 100 slaves, and tax records from 1863 show that he owned at least 89 slaves himself along with more than 3,000 acres of land.
These investments gave him a total wealth of more than $150,000, and one historian has described him as ‘devoted to slavery’.
In early 1861 he took his secessionist campaign to Virginia, where he complained to the legislature that the abolition of slavery would lead to ‘black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything. Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand for that?’
![Fort Benning, Alabama/Georgia 'Home of the Infantry.' Named in 1917 for plantation owner Henry L. Benning, who argued for secession from 1849, and railed against 'black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/15/29477060-8410819-Fort_Benning_Alabama_Georgia_Home_of_the_Infantry_Named_in_1917_-a-100_1591884405938.jpg)
Fort Benning, Alabama/Georgia ‘Home of the Infantry.’ Named in 1917 for plantation owner Henry L. Benning, who argued for secession from 1849, and railed against ‘black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything’
He also predicted that ‘the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back to a wilderness and become another Africa or Saint Domingo’.
Imagining a world in which former slave Frederick Douglass became President, Benning said: ‘I say give me pestilence and famine sooner than that.’
Benning also made explicit that Georgia was fighting for slavery, saying secession had come from ‘a deep conviction that a separation from the North was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery’.
During the Civil War he became a colonel in the Georgia militia and was promoted to brigadier general in 1863, fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg later that year. He died in 1875.
![Braxton Bragg (pictured) bought a plantation in Louisiana which came with 105 slaves](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/12/29485092-8407761-Braxton_Bragg_pictured_bought_a_plantation_in_Louisiana_which_ca-a-37_1591876381502.jpg)
Braxton Bragg (pictured) bought a plantation in Louisiana which came with 105 slaves
BRAXTON BRAGG – FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA
Fort Bragg is home to more than 50,000 troops and hosts the Army’s Special Operations Command. It was named after Confederate general Braxton Bragg in 1918.
Born in North Carolina, Bragg moved to Louisiana in 1856 where he and his wife bought a sugar plantation for $152,000 – which came with 105 slaves.
The Army says the base is named for Bragg’s actions during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s, but Bragg was also a Southern general described as ‘the most hated man of the Confederacy’.
Although he was skeptical about secession, he defended the South’s right to do so and seized a Union arsenal in Baton Rouge in January 1861.
![Fort Bragg is named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, who was known for being notoriously bad at his job. In the past, Gen. David Petraeus had argued that the 10 installments named after Confederate officers should be renamed since they fought against the U.S.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29459932-8410819-Fort_Bragg_is_named_after_Confederate_Gen_Braxton_Bragg_who_was_-a-10_1591896653084.jpg)
Fort Bragg is named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, who was known for being notoriously bad at his job. In the past, Gen. David Petraeus had argued that the 10 installments named after Confederate officers should be renamed since they fought against the U.S.
Beginning the war as a major-general in Louisiana, he rose to become a general and commander of the Confederate Army of Mississippi.
However, he preded over a series of Confederate defeats and was disliked by his subordinates because of his bad temper and combative personality.
One officer called him him ‘self-willed, arrogant and dictatorial,’ while another soldier labelled him ‘obstinate, haughty and authoritative’.
Historians have said that Bragg ‘did as much as any Confederate general to lose the war’ because of his string of military losses.
Bragg resigned as a commander in 1863 but continued to serve as a military adviser to Jefferson Davis and remained in the Confederate cabinet until its defeat.
![John Brown Gordon (pictured) owned a 14-year-old girl as a slave](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/12/29484750-8407761-John_Brown_Gordon_pictured_owned_a_14_year_old_girl_as_a_slave-a-6_1591876307633.jpg)
John Brown Gordon (pictured) owned a 14-year-old girl as a slave
JOHN BROWN GORDON – FORT GORDON, GEORGIA
Fort Gordon, established during World War II, was named for Confederate lieutenant-general John Brown Gordon.
Gordon supported secession and owned slaves as a young man, investing in coal mining operations in Georgia and Tennessee.
In 1860, the census showed him owning one 14-year-old girl as a slave, while his father owned four slaves.
When war broke out, he returned home to Alabama and became a colonel – impressing Robert E. Lee by promising to hold his ground ‘until the sun goes down’.
Later promoted to brigadier-general, he led a brigade of Georgia regiments during the Gettysburg campaign in 1863.
Although he led a failed assault on Fort Stedman in the final months of the war, Gordon has been called ‘one of the most successful commanders’ in Lee’s army.
After the war he entered politics, becoming both a US Senator from Georgia and the Governor of the same state.
He was also rumored to be a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, and one historian said it was ‘almost certain’ that he was head of the KKK’s Georgia branch.
Gordon also served as commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans. He lived until 1904.
![Leonidas Polk (pictured) is thought to have had as many as 400 slaves on plantations](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/12/29485668-8407761-Leonidas_Polk_pictured_is_thought_to_have_had_as_many_as_400_sla-a-8_1591876307645.jpg)
Leonidas Polk (pictured) is thought to have had as many as 400 slaves on plantations
LEONIDAS POLK – FORT POLK, LOUISIANA
This base was named after Leonidas Polk, who was both a bishop in the Episcopal Church and a major-general in the Confederate Army.
Polk, a cousin of 11th US President James Polk, is thought to have had as many as 400 slaves on sugar plantations in Tennessee.
His family owned more than 100,000 acres of land and he initially went to West Point, but diverted to religious life and became Bishop of Louisiana in 1841.
Although he had no military experience, he had trained with Jefferson Davis at West Point and used this connection to become a major-general in the Confederate army.
Polk also supported the secession of the Southern states by withdrawing his own ecclesiastical diocese from the national church.
Known as the ‘Fighting Bishop’, he blundered early on by ordering troops into neutral Kentucky – prompting the border state to ask for Northern help.
He later clashed with the above-mentioned Braxton Bragg, who accused him of disobeying orders during the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.
Polk was killed in action in 1864 while fighting at Pine Mountain, Georgia.
![Robert E. Lee (pictured) inherited slaves from his father-in-law in 1857](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29485356-8410819-Robert_E_Lee_pictured_inherited_slaves_from_his_father_in_law_in-a-9_1591896653069.jpg)
Robert E. Lee (pictured) inherited slaves from his father-in-law in 1857
ROBERT E. LEE – FORT LEE, VIRGINIA
Fort Lee, 25 miles south of Richmond, is named after Confederate general-in-chief Robert E. Lee.
Lee fought in the Mexican-American War and spent three years as a superintendent at West Point, training some of the men who would later serve under him.
He owned slaves from the age of 22, when he inherited several families of black people after the death of his mother Ann Lee.
In 1857, his father-in-law left him 189 slaves who worked on the estates of Arlington, White House, and Romancoke.
The will provided that the slaves should be freed after five years, but Lee tried multiple times to resist this and keep the slaves under his control.
Although he was ‘not a pro-slavery ideologue’ according to one historian, Lee was known to use ‘violence typical of the institution of slavery’ and some slaves tried to escape his discipline. Some were recaptured and beaten on Lee’s orders.
He did not finally free the slaves until three days before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation would have done so anyway.
Lincoln had offered Lee the command of Union forces in 1861, but Lee defected instead and became a general in the Confederate army.
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia did battle with Grant’s federal troops in some of the defining battles of the war, which ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865. Lee died in 1870.
![P.G.T. Beauregard (pictured) grew up in a slave-owning household in Louisiana](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/12/29485172-8407761-P_G_T_Beauregard_pictured_grew_up_in_a_slave_owning_household_in-a-12_1591876307659.jpg)
P.G.T. Beauregard (pictured) grew up in a slave-owning household in Louisiana
P.G.T. BEAUREGARD – CAMP BEAUREGARD, LOUISIANA
A National Guard training facility, this base was initially named Camp Stafford but renamed after Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard in 1917.
Beauregard was a U.S. Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War in the 1840s, but defected to support the Confederacy when Louisiana seceded in 1861.
Born on a sugar plantation outside New Orleans, Beauregard had grown up in a slave-owning household and later rented slaves for himself while in the military.
Commissioned as a Confederate brigadier-general in 1861, Beauregard commanded the defenses of Charleston during the bombardment of Fort Sumter which marked the start of the Civil War.
Beauregard commanded Southern troops throughout the war, including at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and during the defense of Petersburg in 1864.
But by 1865 he was among the generals who persuaded Confederate president Jefferson Davis to surrender and end the war.
After the war he wrote that ‘in seventy-five years the colored race [would] disappear from America along with the Indians and the buffalo’, although for tactical reasons he advised his fellow white Southerners to accept black voting rights.
In later life he became wealthy in his own right by promoting the Louisiana Lottery. He died in 1893.
![Ambrose Powell Hill (pictured) quit the US Army to join the Confederacy](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29485240-8410819-Ambrose_Powell_Hill_pictured_quit_the_US_Army_to_join_the_Confed-a-11_1591896653153.jpg)
Ambrose Powell Hill (pictured) quit the US Army to join the Confederacy
AMBROSE POWELL HILL – FORT A.P. HILL, VIRGINIA
A US Army training center in Virginia, this base was established during World War II and named after Confederate general Ambrose Powell Hill.
Hill was not a slave owner, but quit the US Army in 1861 to join the 13th Virginia Infantry at the outbreak of the Civil War.
He rose through the ranks from colonel to brigadier-general, then major-general and finally lieutenant-general after the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.
However, he was criticized for his ‘less than stellar’ performance on the first two days of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
Hill reputedly said that he did not want to survive the fall of the Confederacy – and indeed he did not, although he only missed Lee’s surrender only by a few days. Hill was killed in action in April 1865, shot by a Union soldier during a battle in Petersburg, Virginia.
![John Bell Hood (pictured) was from a neutral state but chose to fight for the South](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29485300-8410819-John_Bell_Hood_pictured_was_from_a_neutral_state_but_chose_to_fi-a-12_1591896653170.jpg)
John Bell Hood (pictured) was from a neutral state but chose to fight for the South
JOHN BELL HOOD – FORT HOOD, TEXAS
Fort Hood is the Army’s ‘premier installation to train and deploy heavy forces’, and is named after Confederate general John Bell Hood.
Hood was from Kentucky, which declared itself neutral in the war, and had previously served in the US Cavalry after graduating from West Point, where he met Lee.
The Hood family owned seven slaves in the 1830 census and had 11 slaves by 1840, and Hood himself had a fortune of nearly $10,000 by the end of his life.
In 1861, he chose to fight for the South in the Civil War and had been promoted to brigadier-general by 1862.
On one occasion he gave orders to procure thousands of slaves – demanding the ‘services of 4,000 negroes’ for his army.
By 1864 he was leading Confederate forces in defense of Atlanta, but failed to stop Sherman advancing through Georgia with his Union troops.
After the war he wrote a memoir called Advance and Retreat described as the ‘bitter attempt of a soldier to rebut history’s judgment of himself’. He died in 1879.
![George Pickett (pictured) came from a family which owned dozens of slaves](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/12/29485380-8407761-George_Pickett_pictured_came_from_a_family_which_owned_dozens_of-a-19_1591876307758.jpg)
George Pickett (pictured) came from a family which owned dozens of slaves
GEORGE PICKETT – FORT PICKETT, VIRGINIA
This National Guard facility is named after George Pickett, the Confederate general responsible for Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
His Virginia family owned 42 slaves in 1830 and 23 slaves in 1850, when his father was recorded as having a wealth of $50,000.
Pickett graduated from West Point in 1846 – although he came last in his class – but defected to the Confederacy at the outbreak of war in 1861.
His charge at Gettysburg proved a disaster when he lost more than half of his command to death, injury or capture.
In 1864, he signed off the execution of 22 Union soldiers from North Carolina after they were captured at New Bern.
However, he escaped justice from a military tribunal after Ulysses Grant – a former West Point classmate – intervened to protect him.
He was also saved by President Andrew Johnson’s 1866 proclamation that the rebellion was over, allowing him to return from exile in Canada. He died in 1875.
![Edmund Rucker (pictured) served under Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/12/29485498-8407761-Edmund_Rucker_pictured_served_under_Confederate_general_Nathan_B-a-26_1591876308118.jpg)
Edmund Rucker (pictured) served under Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest
EDMUND RUCKER – FORT RUCKER, ALABAMA
Home to the Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker was originally named Ozark Triangular Division Camp but was later renamed after Confederate general Edmund Rucker.
Rucker served under General Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War and was appointed as an honorary general himself.
Rucker was in Forrest’s cavalry during the Fort Pillow Massacre in 1864 when hundreds of African-American troops were killed by Confederate forces.
After the war he became an industrialist in Alabama, working as president of a railroad firm and director of an iron and steel company. He lived until 1924.
Nancy Pelosi says it is ‘the perfect time’ to rid the Capitol of Confederate statues including Jefferson Davis as Republicans say it’s up to states which donated them to decide
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday it was ‘the perfect time’ for the 11 remaining Confederate statues on display on Capitol Hill to be sent packing.
‘Public sentiment is everything,’ Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. ‘This is the perfect time for us to move those statues because other times people may think, “Oh, who cares, I never go there anyway, they all look alike to me, there are all these white men there” – that’s what I think,’ she said, as an aside.
‘On the other hand, the timing may be just right,’ she added.
The speaker timed a press release to go out Wednesday highlighting her work to get the remaining Confederate statues removed from Capitol Hill directly after President Trump announced his opposition to removing Confederate names from the nation’s military bases.
‘I want to tell you something, the American people know these names have to go,’ she said Thursday. ‘These names are white supremacists that said terrible things about our country.’
‘You listen to who they are and what they said and then you have the president make a case for why a base should be named for them,’ she continued. ‘He seems to be the only person left who doesn’t get it.’
![House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that it was 'the perfect time' to send the remaining 11 Confederate statues on display around the Capitol Hill complex packing. She said during her first time as speaker she relegated the Robert E. Lee statue to the Congressional crypt](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29498528-8410819-House_Speaker_Nancy_Pelosi_said_Thursday_that_it_was_the_perfect-a-13_1591896722320.jpg)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that it was ‘the perfect time’ to send the remaining 11 Confederate statues on display around the Capitol Hill complex packing. She said during her first time as speaker she relegated the Robert E. Lee statue to the Congressional crypt
![Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29465848-8410819-Jefferson_Davis_the_president_of_the_Confederate_States_of_Ameri-a-14_1591896722323.jpg)
![Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480604-8410819-Confederate_Gen_Robert_E_Lee-a-15_1591896722330.jpg)
Confederate statues on Capitol Hill includes one of Jefferson Davis, which represents Mississippi in the collection and stands at the National Statuary Hall in the US Capitol Building. Jefferson was the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Before the American Civil War, he operated a large cotton plantation in Mississippi, which his brother Joseph gave him, and owned as many as 113 slaves
On Wednesday, Pelosi sent reporters a copy of a letter she addressed to the leaders of the Joint Committee on the Library that oversees the 100 statues in the National Statuary Hall collection – Sen. Roy Blunt, the chair and a Missouri Republican and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the committee’s vice chair and a California Democrat.
Pelosi said Thursday she hadn’t received a response from Blunt.
‘No, but I think he’s spoken in the public domain and saying it’s up to the states,’ she said. ‘It may be up to states to send it here but it’s not up to the states where it might be.’
She used that power before to move one prominent Confederate statue.
‘Let me just say that when I was Speaker, I did do what I had the authority to do, which was to relegate Robert E. Lee to the crypt,’ she said, speaking of her time serving as speaker between 2007 and 2011.
‘I could move things around I couldn’t take them out, that requires something else,’ she explained, suggesting that removal of the statues may need a legislative fix.
In a statement out Thursday, Blunt cited the law as it’s currently written.
‘Under the law, each state decides which two statues it will send to the Capitol,’ he said. ‘As Speaker Pelosi is undoubtedly aware, the law does not permit the Architect of the Capitol or the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove a statue from the Capitol once it has been received.’
Blunt also pointed out that the states seemed to be moving in the direction of removing the last Confederates.
‘Several states have moved toward replacing statues and others appear headed in the same direction,’ Blunt said. ‘This process is ongoing and encouraging.’
![General Robert E. Lee](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29465846-0-General_Robert_E_Lee-a-2_1591891700440.jpg)
![General Robert E. Lee](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480614-8410819-General_Robert_E_Lee-a-16_1591896722337.jpg)
Also on Capitol Hill is General Robert E. Lee, a gift from the commonwealth of Virginia. Robert E. Lee was an American and Confederate soldier best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded the Army of Northern Virginia from 1862 until its surrender in 1865. Lee married into one of the wealthiest slave-holding families in Virginia and took leave from the army to run the family estate following his father-in-law’s death. Documents show that he encouraged severe beatings for those who tried to escape
![Commander Joseph Wheeler](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29465844-8410819-Commander_Joseph_Wheeler-a-18_1591896722430.jpg)
![Commander Joseph Wheeler](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29480616-0-Commander_Joseph_Wheeler-a-4_1591891700458.jpg)
Commander Joseph Wheeler for the Confederate Army of Tennessee, left. He is known for having served both as a cavalry general in the Confederate States Army in the 1860s during the American Civil War, and then as a general in the United States Army during both the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War near the turn of the twentieth century
![Uriah Milton Rose](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29467372-0-Uriah_Milton_Rose-a-5_1591891700460.jpg)
![Uriah Milton Rose](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480606-8410819-Uriah_Milton_Rose-a-17_1591896722427.jpg)
Lawyer Uriah Milton Rose was an attorney who backed the Confederacy. In 1917, the state of Arkansas donated a marble statue of Rose to the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection. Rose was the only delegate from Arkansas among the 75 lawyers who formed the American Bar Association in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1872. He was president from 1891 to 1892 and again from 1901 to 1902
![Wade Hampton](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29467364-0-Wade_Hampton-a-7_1591891700466.jpg)
![Wade Hampton](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29480608-0-Wade_Hampton-a-8_1591891700469.jpg)
Military officer Wade Hampton was a Confederate States of America military officer during the American Civil War and politician from South Carolina. He came from a wealthy planter family, and shortly before the war he was one of the largest slaveholders in the Southeast as well as a state legislator. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate cavalry, where he reached the rank of lieutenant general. At the end of Reconstruction, with the withdrawal of federal troops from the state, Hampton was leader of the Redeemers who restored white rule. His campaign for governor was marked by extensive violence by the Red Shirts, a paramilitary group that served the Democratic Party by disrupting elections and suppressing black and Republican voting in the state
![ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29465852-8410819-ALEXANDER_HAMILTON_STEPHENS-a-20_1591896722461.jpg)
Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens was a Confederate politician who served as the vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and later as the 50th Governor of Georgia from 1882 until his death in 1883. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the state of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives prior to becoming Governor
The Confederates, Pelosi said, ‘committed treason against the United States.’
The statue collection includes Gen. Robert E. Lee, a gift from Virginia, the Confederate president Jefferson Davis, which is a contribution from Mississippi and Alexander Hamilton Stephens, a statue given by Georgia.
Additionally Mississippi has a statue of Confederate James Zachariah George, Alabama has Joseph Wheeler, South Carolina has a statue of Wade Hampton, North Carolina has a statue of Zebulon Vance, West Virginia has John E. Kenna, Louisiana has Edward Douglass White and Arkansas gifted a statue of Uriah Milton Rose, an attorney who sided with the Confederacy.
The statue of Edmund Kirby Smith, a general in the Confederate Army, was already expected to be replaced.
Most of the Confederates in the collection are depicted in uniform.
Pelosi’s demand comes amid a wave of anti-racism protests raging across America and the world, in which several statues that symbolize racial oppression have already been torn down.
In her letter, Pelosi quoted Stephens’ ‘corner-stone speech’ in which the Confederacy’s vice president said the ‘assumption of the equality of the races’ was something that was made ‘in error.’
‘Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition,’ Stephens had said in the speech, Pelosi reminded the lawmakers.
She argued that the statues that are on display on Capitol Hill ‘should embody our highest ideals as Americans.’
‘Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals,’ Pelosi said. ‘Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage.’
‘They must be removed,’ she argued.
‘While I believe it is imperative that we never forget our history lest we repeat it, I also believe that there is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or in places of honor across the country.’
The push to get rid of Confederate symbols has come in the aftermath of the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis black man, at the hands of a white police officer.
![EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29467368-8410819-EDWARD_DOUGLASS_WHITE-a-19_1591896722441.jpg)
![JOHN E. KENNA](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480610-8410819-JOHN_E_KENNA-a-21_1591896722471.jpg)
Edward Douglass White was an American politician and jurist from Louisiana. He was a United States Senator and the ninth Chief Justice of the United States. He served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1894 to 1921. After the war, White won election to the Louisiana State Senate and served on the Louisiana Supreme Court. As a member of the Democratic Party, White represented Louisiana in the United States Senate from 1891 to 1894.
![John E. Kenna](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29467358-8410819-John_E_Kenna-a-23_1591896722525.jpg)
![John E. Kenna](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29480600-0-John_E_Kenna-a-13_1591891700484.jpg)
John E. Kenna was an American politician who was a Senator from West Virginia from 1883 until his death. He rose from prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County in 1872 to justice pro tempore of the county circuit in 1875, and to the United States House of Representatives in 1876. While in the House he championed railroad legislation and crusaded for aid for slack-water navigation to help the coal, timber and salt industries in his state
![Zebulon Baird Vance](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/17/29465850-0-Zebulon_Baird_Vance-a-14_1591891700485.jpg)
![Zebulon Baird Vance](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480612-8410819-Zebulon_Baird_Vance-a-22_1591896722496.jpg)
Zebulon Baird Vance, a Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, the 37th and 43rd Governor of North Carolina. was a Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, the 37th and 43rd Governor of North Carolina, and U.S. Senator. A prolific writer, Vance became one of the most influential Southern leaders of the Civil War and postbellum periods. As a leader of the ‘New South’, Vance favored the rapid modernization of the Southern economy, railroad expansion, school construction, and reconciliation with the North
![James Zachariah George](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29465842-8410819-James_Zachariah_George-a-24_1591896722531.jpg)
![James Zachariah George](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480602-8411461-James_Zachariah_George-a-22_1591896616868.jpg)
James Zachariah George was one of Mississippi’s strongest white-supremacy statesmen in the Reconstruction era. He was an American lawyer, writer, U.S. politician, Confederate politician, and military officer. He was known as Mississippi’s ‘Great Commoner’
![Edmund Kirby Smith](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29467360-8410819-Edmund_Kirby_Smith-a-25_1591896722562.jpg)
![Edmund Kirby Smith](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/06/11/18/29480598-8410819-Edmund_Kirby_Smith-a-26_1591896722585.jpg)
Edmund Kirby Smith was born into a wealthy slave-owning family in St. Augustine. He was a career United States Army officer who fought in the Mexican–American War. He later joined the Confederate States Army in the Civil War, and was promoted to general in the first months of the war. He was notable for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department after the fall of Vicksburg to the United States
The ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests that followed have put renewed attention on issues like the Capitol Hill statues, flying the Confederate flag at certain events and renaming 10 U.S. Army bases, which currently are named after Confederate leaders.
On Wednesday, President Trump articulated that the U.S. bases would not be renamed under his watch.
Democrats had previously tried to get the Statuary Hall collection statues removed on the heels of the August 2017 protests in Charlottesville that pit KKK members, neo-Nazis and white supremacists against counter-protesters, one of whom was killed.
Republicans, at the time, responded by saying that the statue selections are up to each state.
Upon seeing the letter, Lofgren said she agreed with Pelosi that the Joint Committee and the Architect of the Capitol ‘should expediently remove these symbols of cruelty and bigotry from the halls of the Capitol.’
‘The Capitol building belongs to the American people and cannot serve as a place of honor for the hatred and racism that tears at the fabric of our nation, the very poison that these statues embody,’ Lofgren said.
The longstanding debate over Confederate statues has come rushing back into the spotlight this month during the huge anti-racism movement following the death of George Floyd.
Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in Minneapolis police custody after a white officer knelt on his head for nearly nine minutes while arresting him.
Virginia governor Ralph Northam last week announced plans to take down a statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, although a judge has stalled this proposal.
Elsewhere, statues of Christopher Columbus have also become a target for protesters who say he unleashed centuries of genocide against Native Americans.
One Columbus statue was pulled down with ropes, set on fire and rolled into a lake at a park in Richmond on Tuesday night.
Another Columbus monument was beheaded in Boston, in a waterfront park near the city’s North End.
However, Donald Trump says his administration will ‘not even consider’ changing the name of any of the 10 U.S. Army bases that are named for Confederate leaders.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper had indicated he was open to discussing such changes in the wake of Floyd’s funeral.
But Trump weighed in on Wednesday night, saying: ‘These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom.
‘The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.’