Army Continues to Honor Confederate Unit Histories, Even as Base Names Draw Scrutiny

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.

At least three units have official nicknames that honor their Confederate roots, according to a count by the Army provided to The Washington Post. One of them, a unit in Virginia, is called “Stonewall Brigade” after Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

At least three others have names tied to the Confederacy in other ways, the Army said.