Military

Army continues to honor Confederate unit histories, even as base names draw scrutiny

By Alex Horton
March 11, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. EST

It was early September 1864 when Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan, with a reputation among Southerners as a swashbuckling gentleman, was surrounded by federal soldiers outside a Tennessee mansion.

Morgan fled across the lawn. A Union bullet shredded the general’s heart, a member of his staff wrote to Morgan’s wife, ending his campaign of ambushing and capturing U.S. troops.

Nearly 160 years later, Morgan’s legacy lives within 1st Battalion, 623rd Field Artillery Regiment of the Kentucky National Guard, which traces its lineage through a cavalry unit he commanded. Its members are officially nicknamed “Morgan’s Men.” On the radio, the commander is known by the call sign “Morgan 6.”

The names of 10 Army posts christened after Confederate officers have been under intense scrutiny following social justice protests last summer. But far from public view, the Army is also grappling with the other ways it lionizes aspects of the Confederacy, which killed and wounded more than 420,000 U.S. troops to protect the institution of slavery.

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Alex Horton
Alex Horton is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. He previously covered the military and national security for Stars and Stripes, and served in Iraq as an Army infantryman. Follow https://twitter.com/AlexHortonTX