TheCommission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America, more commonly referred to as theNaming Commission, was aUnited States governmentcommission created by theUnited States Congress in 2021 to create a list of military assets with names associated with theConfederate States of America and recommendations for their removal.[1]
In summer and fall 2022, the commission delivered its report and recommendations to Congress in three parts. It disbanded on October 1, 2022, after fulfilling its duties to Congress.[1]
On October 6, Secretary of DefenseLloyd Austin declared in a memo that he concurred with all the commission's recommendations and was committed to implementing them as soon as possible, within legal constraints.[6] On January 5, 2023, William A. LaPlante, U.S.under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment (USD (A&S)), directed the Department to implement all of the commission's recommendations.[7]
In June 2025, the Army announced that all of the bases that were formerly named after Confederate officers will be reverted to their original names, except with new namesakes being used.[8][9] The Defense Secretary claimed that the change was “important for morale".[10] The process of restoring the original names of all nine US Army posts was completed on June 11, 2025.[11][12]
On June 9, 2020, Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced that she had "filed an amendment to the annual defense bill last week to rename all bases named for Confederate generals."[13] On June 11, 2020, Reps.Anthony Brown (D-MD) andDon Bacon (R-NE) introduced H.R.7155, National Commission on Modernizing Military Installation Designations Act.[14][15] The bill received support from 30 total co-sponsors, including 3 Republicans.
TheSenate Armed Services Committee (SASC) completed its markup of the FY2021 NDAA on June 11, 2020, and the bill reported out by committee included Warren's provision.[16] Warren's provision to direct the renaming of the bases was altered to an approach that used a commission after Sen.Martha McSally (R-AZ) indicated her support to remove the names.[17] Sens.Mike Rounds (R-SD) andJoni Ernst (R-IA) publicly said that they supported the amendment to change base names.
During consideration of the FY2021 NDAA by theHouse Armed Services Committee (HASC) on July 1, 2020, Brown offered an amendment, which was co-led with Bacon, to directly require the Secretary of Defense to rename any defense property that is named after any person who served in the political or military leadership of any armed rebellion against the United States.[18][19] The amendment offered by Brown passed by a vote of 33–23, with Republicans Bacon andPaul Mitchell (R-MI) joining in support.[20] The committee unanimously voted to report the NDAA favorably to the House.[21]
At a July 9, 2020, hearing in HASC,Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffMark Milley said, "I personally think that the original decisions to name those bases after Confederate bases were political decisions back in the 1910s and '20s....The American Civil War was fought, and it was an act of rebellion. It was an act of treason at the time against the Union. Against the stars and stripes. Against the U.S. Constitution. And those officers turned their backs on their oath."[22]
On November 18, 2020, SpeakerNancy Pelosi named the House Democratic members of the conference committee for the NDAA and in doing so stated that "this summer, the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis passed NDAAs with provisions to begin the process of changing the names of military bases and infrastructure named after individuals who served in the Confederacy. It is imperative that the conference report include provisions that secure this essential priority. Our bases should reflect our highest ideals as Americans."[23]
Conference negotiations over the provisions were tense and threatened a failure to pass the NDAA for the first time in its 60-year history.[24][25] On November 20, 2020, theCongressional Black Caucus adopted a formal position that the final conference report for the NDAA "must include a provision mandating the redesignation of Department of Defense property honoring the Confederacy."[26]
On December 2, 2020, the conference committee reported out the conference report, which receded to the Senate language without amendment and incorporated the text as section 370 in the final bill.[27] TheHouse of Representatives agreed to the conference report by a vote of 335–78 on December 8, 2020, and theSenate followed suit on December 11, 2020, passing it 84–13.[28] On December 23, 2020, President Trump vetoed the legislation, saying, "These locations have taken on significance to the American story and those who have helped write it that far transcends their namesakes...I have been clear in my opposition to politically motivated attempts like this to wash away history and to dishonor the immense progress our country has fought for in realizing our founding principles."[29]
On December 28, 2020, in the last vote of the 116th Congress in the House of Representatives, the House voted to override President Trump's veto by 322–87, including 109 Republicans and 1 Independent who voted yea.[30] On January 1, 2021, in the last vote of the 116th Congress, the Senate voted to override President Trump's veto by 81–13, passing the commission into law.[31] The passage of the FY2021 NDAA was the 60th consecutive time that such legislation[clarification needed] had been passed and is the only instance in which it was enacted over the objection of the president.[citation needed]
The commission was chartered with five primary activities:
Assessing the cost of renaming or removing names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.
Developing procedures and criteria to assess whether an existing name, symbol, monument, display, or paraphernalia commemorates the Confederate States of America or person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.
Recommending procedures for renaming assets of the Department of Defense to prevent commemoration of the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.
Developing a plan to remove names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from assets of the Department of Defense, within the timeline established by this Act.
Including in the plan procedures and criteria for collecting and incorporating local sensitivities associated with naming or renaming of assets of the Department of Defense.
The commission was authorized $2 million to conduct its work,[32] and had to brief the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on its progress by October 1, 2021, and then present a final briefing and written report to the armed services committees by October 1, 2022, which it accomplished while spending less than half the funding it was authorized.[33] The commission met biweekly and briefed the Secretary of Defense on its progress and recommendations. The commission's focus throughout the summer and fall of 2021 consisted of visiting the nine Army installations named for those who voluntarily served in the Confederacy.[34] The commission met with installation leadership to gauge their level of planning and their local assessments.
The commission expanded their investigation of military assets to include assets with names that commemorate other Civil War era events or places to see if the name has a connection to the Confederacy. Examples given areUSSAntietam (CG-54) andFort Belvoir.[35][33]
Until December 1, 2021, the commission had collected suggestions from the general public for possible replacement names for the military assets that the Department of Defense may finally decide to rename.[36] After receiving thousands of suggestions, the commission posted a list of 90 names in March 2022 that it plans to consider as possible replacement names for the nine Army installations before the list is further narrowed to produce the list of finalists.[37]
In March 2022, the commission determined that Fort Belvoir does not meet the criteria provided in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for a renaming recommendation but the commission recommends that the Department of Defense conduct its own naming review of the post, based on results of the commission's historical research.[38] At end of the same month, the commission posted a list of 758 Defense Department items at U.S. military installations in the United States, Germany and Japan with ties to the Confederacy. Many of the items on the list are streets, signs, paintings and buildings.[39][40] Included on the list,Arlington National Cemetery has amemorial dedicated to Confederate war dead which includes "highly sanitized depictions of slavery".[41][39]
On January 8, 2021,Christopher C. Miller—the acting Defense Secretary for the outgoing Trump administration—appointed the four DoD representatives: "Sean McLean, a White House associate director;Joshua Whitehouse, the White House liaison to the Defense Department who was involved in some of the post-election purges at the Pentagon; Ann T. Johnston, actingAssistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs; andEarl G. Matthews, an Army National Guard colonel who previously served as principal deputy general counsel for the Army and on Trump's National Security Council."[4]
On January 29, 2021, following the January 20inauguration of Joe Biden, the new administration halted all appointments that had not yet completed paperwork, including the four Secretary of Defense appointments to the commission.[42] On February 12, 2021, Defense SecretaryLloyd Austin announced new appointments to the position,[43] followed immediately after by the Democratic chairmen and ranking Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.[44]
On March 2, it was announced that Smithsonian SecretaryLonnie Bunch had to withdraw from the commission for personal reasons prior to the swearing-in ceremony.[45] Eight days later, Congressman Smith replaced Bunch with former Obama administration officialLawrence Romo.[46]
Michelle Howard was thechair of the committee with Ty Seidule serving as thevice-chair.[35] U.S. Army Major GeneralDeborah Kotulich served as the chief of staff of the Army Support Team to the Naming Commission starting in November 2021 until it was dissolved.[47]
Committee chair. Before retirement from active service in 2017, Howard became the highest ranking woman in United States Armed Forces history and the third African-American to achieve the rank of four-star admiral.
Committee vice-chair. Emeritus Professor of History at theUnited States Military Academy, and author of the 2021 bookRobert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause (ISBN978-1-250-23926-6)
TheUnited States Military Academy has a dormitory, a road, and an entrance gate that honor alumni who served in the Confederate Army.[50]
Army National Guard units that can trace their lineage to state militia units that had served as a part of the Confederate Army, such as the116th Infantry Regiment of theVirginia Army National Guard and the118th Infantry Regiment of theSouth Carolina Army National Guard, were allowed under U.S. Army regulations from 1949 until 2023 to carrycampaign streamers that commemorate Confederate victories over the United States.[51][52][53] In its final report, the Naming Commission recommended that the Secretary of Defense to have the Secretary of the Army revoke the 1949 exemption that allowed the display of campaign streamers not associated with U.S. Army service.[54] The Department of the Army implemented this recommendation the following year.[55]
Fort Belvoir was added to the list in May 2021 by the commission since the current name of the base commemorates a slave plantation that previously occupied the site. The base opened in 1917 as Camp A. A. Humphreys, named in honor of Union generalAndrew A. Humphreys.[35] The fort was renamed in 1935 at the request of CongressmanHoward W. Smith (D-VA), an "avowed white supremacist".[56] In March 2022, the commission determined that the fort did not meet the criteria provided in the 2021 NDAA but recommends that the DoD conduct its own naming review of the post.[38]
Arlington National Cemetery has streets named after Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and theConfederate Memorial[39] which includes "highly sanitized depictions of slavery" (dedicated by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914, the 106th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis).[41] Recommendation for the removal of the Confederate Memorial was included in the final report and must be complete by the end of 2023. The current plan is to remove of all bronze elements from the statue while leaving the granite base and foundation in place to avoid disturbing surrounding graves.[57]
USSChancellorsville, a ship named for a battle in which a larger Union army was defeated by a much smaller Confederate force. As recently as 2016, the ship's wardroom had a painting of Confederate generals Lee and Jackson.[58] In February 2023, the Secretary of the Navy announced that theChancellorsville will be renamedUSSRobert Smalls sometime later in 2023 in commemoration ofRobert Smalls, a slave who had commandeered a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, and had later served in Congress.[59]
USNSMaury, a ship named for an officer in the Confederate navy.[60] In March 2023, the Secretary of the Navy announced that the USNSMaury be renamedUSNSMarie Tharp in honor of geologist and oceanographic cartographerMarie Tharp who had helped to produce the scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor.[61]
USSAntietam, a ship named after theBattle of Antietam. Although considered a Union victory, the battle was tactically inconclusive since General George B. McClellan failed to crush the much smaller Confederate force under Robert E. Lee[35]
TheUnited States Naval Academy had an engineering building (Maury Hall) and the superintendent house (Buchanan House) that honor naval officers who had served in the Confederate Navy.[62][63] In February 2023, the Naval Academy officially renamed Maury Hall as Carter Hall in honor of former U.S. president and USNA alumnusJimmy Carter. In May 2023, the superintendent's house was officially renamed Farragut House in honor of AdmiralDavid Farragut.[64]
Fort Bragg had its name recommended to be changed to Fort Liberty, and was renamed on June 2, 2023 for the American value ofLiberty. (As the only recommendation of a non-person name, this choice attracted both criticism[68] and praise[69] in nearbyFayetteville, North Carolina.)[70] The name was reverted to Fort Bragg on February 10, 2025 – forSilver Star recipientRoland L. Bragg instead of Braxton Bragg.[71]
The recommendations were accepted, and by October 27, 2023, each of the bases had been renamed.[77]
In 2024, Donald Trump made campaign promises to restore the Confederate names to the bases.[78]
On February 10, 2025, in the second month of thesecond Trump administration, Defense SecretaryPete Hegseth ordered the Army to revert the name of Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, saying that the base would now be named forSilver Star recipientRoland L. Bragg instead of Braxton Bragg.[71]
On March 3, 2025, Hegseth ordered the Army to revert the name of Fort Benning, saying that the base would now be named for Distinguished Service Cross recipient Fred G. Benning instead of Henry Lewis Benning.[67]
^abOne of the few nominees who were still alive at the time of nomination in March 2022
^Although Julia Moore was a civilian and never a sworn member of the military, she spent most of her life living on an U.S. Army base as a daughter of colonel and a wife of a general and she had served her country by find ways to improve the lives of the common soldier and their dependents.
^Of the nine U.S. Army forts, only Fort Hood is located in the state of Texas
^abHarriet Tubman andMary Walker were civilians who served the U.S. Army in various capacities during the Civil War that put their lives in danger, such as crossing enemy lines, but at the same time were not allowed to enlist because they were women.
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