Here are some Southerners who deserve to have US military bases named after them:
Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, from Virginia. He had served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. He is the longest serving US general officer in history, and was the commanding officer at the beginning of the Civil War. He clashed with Lincoln on many issues but it was his “Anaconda” plan that ended up winning the war for the US and defeating the rebellion. He also tried to talk then Col. Robert E. Lee out of committing treason.
Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee, also from Virginia. He was third cousin to Robert E. Lee and also tried to talk Col. Lee out of committing treason. He led blockades of the South during the Civil War. His father in law, Francis Preston Blair, was a major advisor to President Lincoln. His son Blair Lee would be the first person elected to the US Senate by popular vote after the 17th Amendment, his grandson E. Brooke Lee would be Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, and his great grandson Blair Lee III would serve as Lt. Governor of Maryland.
Major General Montgomery C. Meigs, from Georgia. He was Quartermaster General for the entire Civil War and his ability to supply and to transport the huge Union Army huge distances via rail, water, and land was essential to the successful victory of the Union. It is an accomplishment that has gone unnoticed by too many supposed Civil War buffs but not by people who understand war. As the saying goes, amateur generals talk strategy while real generals talk logistics.
Major General George H. Thomas, from Virginia. As a child, he and his family had survived Nat Turner’s famous unsuccessful slave revolt and he became an opponent of slavery for the rest of his life. He was one of the Union’s best generals, winning the Battle of Nashville which totally destroyed what remained of the Confederate Army in the West. He never got a major command because he refused to play politics and he died a few years after the war before getting a chance to write memoirs.
Admiral David Farragut, born in Tennessee and grew up in Louisiana. One of the few loyal southerners to receive some recognition, including a now closed naval facility and a postage stamp. The town closest to his place of birth is now named for him; that part of eastern Tennessee remained loyal to the Union. He had served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. He played a major role in the Union capture of New Orleans, Port Hudson, and led the Union forces at Mobile Bay, famously shouting “Damn the torpedoes.” He was the foster brother of Admiral David Dixon Porter.
Major General Robert Anderson, from Kentucky. He had served in the Black Hawk War, where one of the people he mustered into militia service as Abraham Lincoln, and in the Mexican-American War. He is best known for having been the leader of the Union garrison at Fort Sumter when it was attacked. There had been little sentiment in favor of fighting a war against the South until the South attacked Fort Sumter without provocation; then Major Anderson’s refusal to surrender at the point of a gun made him a national hero and electrified support for fighting to preserve the Union by force. While he was promoted to be a general officer he played little further role in the Civil War because of poor health, although he did return to Charleston to raise the US flag over Fort Sumter in April 1865.
Brigadier General William Terrill, from Virginia. He was killed at the Battle of Perryville. He had two brothers who fought for the Confederacy and were killed in action.
Rear Admiral John Ancrum Winslow, from North Carolina. However, he was from an old New England family and had ancestors on the Mayflower. He is most famous for having been the Captain of the USS Kearsarge when it sank the “commerce raider” CSS Alabama off the coast of France as both French and British vessels stood by. The wreck of the Alabama was discovered in 1984. There have been several USS Winslow ships in the US Navy named in his honor.
Finally, as we are about to read Parshat Shelach this coming week, one Southern Spy deserves mention: Elizabeth Van Lew, who despite being from Richmond VA was an abolitionist prior to secession. She cared for Union POWs and helped them escape, and she had contacts in the Confederate government that fed her information about the confederate military that she conveyed, partly through escaped prisoners, to the Union leaders. She was rewarded by President Grant by being named Postmaster of Richmond for eight years and she lived to the age of 81, dying in 1900, just before Virginia took voting rights away from blacks and poor whites.