- Joined
- Feb 3, 2018
- Location
- SWVA
In light of the current renaming drive, I'd like to start a thread to collect information about the contemporary circumstances when the army bases now suddenly famous for their names were named. I've read several accusations that they were named as part of an attempt to curry favor with Southern politicians, and would like to see whether these are justified.
When the US Army began its massive expansion during World War I there was a need for more posts to train draftees and called-up National Guardsmen, and on 15 July 1917 the War Department announced the names for 32 posts - 16 division training camps each for the National Army (the term for draftee units) and the National Guard. The names generally were those of famous military leaders from the area that the camps were in or of military leaders from the states of the National Guard divisions.
The sixteen National Army camps were (namesake in parentheses):
The local Montgomery Advertiser had effusive praise for Sheridan, describing him repeatedly as the "greatest single cavalry leader produced in the United States army" who "did most of the active work for Grant in the final crushing of the Army of Northern Virginia," yet predictably noted that Sheridan was still the cause of bad memories in Virginia due to the 1864 Valley Campaign. From the newspaper, Montgomery's leading citizens were delighted at the business prospects that having thousands of soldiers stationed there brought and didn't object to the naming of the camp for Sheridan.
When the US Army began its massive expansion during World War I there was a need for more posts to train draftees and called-up National Guardsmen, and on 15 July 1917 the War Department announced the names for 32 posts - 16 division training camps each for the National Army (the term for draftee units) and the National Guard. The names generally were those of famous military leaders from the area that the camps were in or of military leaders from the states of the National Guard divisions.
The sixteen National Army camps were (namesake in parentheses):
- Camp Lee (Robert E. Lee), Virginia
- Camp Jackson (Andrew Jackson), South Carolina
- Camp Gordon (John Brown Gordon), Georgia
- Camp Pike (Zebulon Pike), Arkansas
- Camp Devens (Charles Devens), Massachusetts
- Camp Upton (Emory Upton), New York
- Camp Dix (John Adams Dix), New Jersey
- Camp Meade (George Meade), Maryland
- Camp Sherman (William Tecumseh Sherman), Ohio
- Camp Taylor (Zachary Taylor), Kentucky
- Camp Custer (George Armstrong Custer), Michigan
- Camp Grant (Ulysses Grant), Illinois
- Camp Dodge (Grenville M. Dodge), Iowa
- Camp Funston (Frederick Funston), Kansas
- Camp Travis (William B. Travis), Texas
- Camp Lewis (Meriwether Lewis), Washington
- Camp Greene (Nathanael Greene), North Carolina
- Camp Wadsworth (James S. Wadsworth), South Carolina
- Camp Hancock (Winfield Scott Hancock), Georgia
- Camp McClellan (George McClellan), Alabama
- Camp Sevier (John Sevier), South Carolina
- Camp Wheeler (Joseph Wheeler), Georgia
- Camp Sheridan (Phil Sheridan), Alabama
- Camp Shelby (Isaac Shelby), Mississippi
- Camp MacArthur (Arthur MacArthur), Texas
- Camp Logan (John A. Logan), Texas
- Camp Cody (Buffalo Bill Cody), New Mexico
- Camp Doniphan (Alexander Doniphan), Oklahoma
- Camp Bowie (James Bowie), Texas
- Camp Beauregard (P.G.T. Beauregard), Louisiana
- Camp Kearney (Stephen Kearney), California
- Camp Fremont (John C. Fremont), California
The local Montgomery Advertiser had effusive praise for Sheridan, describing him repeatedly as the "greatest single cavalry leader produced in the United States army" who "did most of the active work for Grant in the final crushing of the Army of Northern Virginia," yet predictably noted that Sheridan was still the cause of bad memories in Virginia due to the 1864 Valley Campaign. From the newspaper, Montgomery's leading citizens were delighted at the business prospects that having thousands of soldiers stationed there brought and didn't object to the naming of the camp for Sheridan.