SECOND TAKE
LA TIMES: Movement to ditch racist US artefacts is overdue
Fort Bragg City council to consider a change for a city named after man who was central to slavery
Braxton Bragg was a general in the Confederate army, and a bad one at that. It’s perplexing that the federal government decided to name a military installation in North Carolina after him decades after he turned traitor and fought on the wrong side of the Civil War.
But stranger still is that his name lives on in a Californian city in which, the story goes, he never set foot. Fort Bragg was incorporated as a city in 1889, 32 years after Lt Horatio G Gibson established a military post there to control the Native American population in Mendocino County and named it after Bragg, his former commander at the Presidio at San Francisco. Don’t judge Gibson too harshly; it was years later that Bragg, a veteran of the Mexican-American war, would go on to ignominy as one of the Confederacy’s worst generals...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.