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Fort Moore has been renamed back to Fort Benning following an order by the new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The longtime Chattahoochee Valley U.S. Army base located in Columbus had gone by Fort Benning, named after a Confederate general in the United States Civil War until it was renamed to Fort Moore in 2023. 

Hegseth signed a memorandum renaming the fort once again, to Fort Benning. However, according to the memorandum the Fort is not named after the famed Confederate general but a World War I Corporal (CPL) Fred G. Benning of Norfolk, Nebraska. The renaming comes after the Secretary of Defense reverted Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, for a WWII Army Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, rather than the original honoree, Braxton Bragg, a Confederate Army officer. 

The Fort was renamed to Moore in 2023, as well as eight other bases around the country with “Confederacy-affiliated and named Department of Defense assets,” according to a report to Congress by the Naming Commission formed for this purpose.  

The report recounted the history of the Columbus base. It was founded in 1918 as Camp Benning to provide basic training for units deploying to fight in World War I. The base was named for Henry L. Benning, who the report said “was a lawyer, ardent secessionist, bitter opponent of abolition, and senior officer in the Confederate Army.”

The Commission recommended the fort be renamed in 2023 to Fort Moore in honor of LTG Hal Moore and Julia Moore. Hal served 22 assignments around the world during his 32-year career, including as a commander in the Vietnam War. Julia Moore was a lifelong advocate for military families and a key player in the creation of casualty notification teams and survivor support networks. Congress approved the recommendation of renaming and it was named Fort Moore until Hagseth signed the memorandum on Mar 3, 2025. In the memorandum, it states that the renamed fort is in honor of CPL Fred Benning rather than Henry Benning. 

The memo stated, “[Fred Benning] served with extraordinary heroism during World War I with the United States Army and in recognition of the installation’s storied history of service to the United States of America.”

The Corporal served in the 16th Infantry Regiment in WWI. The memo said that Fred was serving in Exermont, France when his platoon commander was killed and two senior officers were disabled. Fred took command of the surviving 20 men in his company to their assigned objective.