Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post in the Columbus, Georgia, area. Located on Georgia's border with Alabama, Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employees on a daily basis. As a power projection platform, the post can deploy combat-ready forces by air, rail, and highway for their designated mission. Fort Benning is the home of the United States Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, the United States Army Armor School, United States Army Infantry School, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment, the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, and other tenant units.
Established in 1918 as Camp Benning, named after Confederate General Henry L. Benning in the American Civil War, it was the Home of the Infantry. In 1922 Camp Benning became Fort Benning. In 2005, it was transformed into the Maneuver Center of Excellence, as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decision to consolidate a number of schools and installations to create various "centers of excellence". Included in this transformation was the move of the Armor School from Fort Knox to Fort Benning.
In May 2023, as part of the removal of names associated with the Confederacy, Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore after General Hal Moore and his wife Julia Compton Moore. In March 2025, the secretary of defense ordered that the name of Fort Moore be changed back to Fort Benning. The base name now pays tribute to Corporal Fred G. Benning, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his extraordinary heroism in action during World War I with the U.S. Army in France in 1918.
Name
The installation was originally named for Henry L. Benning, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Fort Benning was one of the ten U.S. Army installations named for former Confederate generals that were renamed on 11 May 2023.As a result of national protests following the 25 May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a black man, by Minneapolis police, Congress began to evaluate Democratic proposals to strip the names of Confederate leaders from military bases, including Fort Benning. The congressionally mandated Naming Commission recommended that Fort Benning be renamed Fort Moore after Lieutenant General Hal Moore and his wife Julia Compton Moore, both of whom are buried on post. On 6 October 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin accepted the recommendation and directed the name change occur no later than 1 January 2024. The redesignation ceremony officially renaming Fort Benning as Fort Moore was held on 11 May 2023, the day the renaming took effect.
On March 3, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. Army to rename the base back to Fort Benning, but with the new namesake of Corporal Fred G. Benning, who earned a Distinguished Service Cross in World War I. By March 4, 2025, the reverted name and logo of Fort Benning were displayed on portions of the official US Army website.
History
Establishment
Camp Benning was established on 19 October 1918, initially providing basic training for World War I units, post-war. Dwight D. Eisenhower served at Benning from 24 December 1918 until 15 March 1919, with about 250 of his Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, tankers who had been transferred to Benning after the armistice. In December 1918, a portion of the Camp Polk tank school near Raleigh, North Carolina was transferred to Camp Benning "to work in conjunction with the Infantry school". Camp Benning tank troops were moved to Camp Meade in February 1919.In February 1920, Congress voted to declare Camp Benning a permanent military post and appropriated more than $1 million of additional building funds for the Infantry School of Arms, which later became the Infantry School. By the fall of 1920, more than 350 officers, 7,000 troops and 650 student officers lived at Camp Benning. The post was renamed to Fort Benning in 1922, after Henry L. Benning, a general in the army of the Confederate States of America. Benning fought against U.S. Army troops in the Civil War as commander of Confederate States Army forces.
In 1924, Brig. Gen. Briant H. Wells became the fourth commandant of the Infantry School and established the Wells Plan for permanent construction on the installation, emphasizing the importance of the outdoor environment and recreation opportunities for military personnel. During Wells' tenure, the post developed recreational facilities such as Doughboy Stadium, Gowdy Field, the post theater and Russ swimming pool. Doughboy Stadium was erected as a memorial by soldiers to their fallen comrades of World War I. One of the Doughboys' original coaches was a young captain named Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Lt. Col. George C. Marshall was appointed assistant commandant of the post in 1927 and initiated major changes. Marshall, who later became the Army Chief of Staff during World War II, was appalled by the high casualties World War I caused, he thought, by insufficient training. He was determined to prevent a lack of preparation from costing more lives in future conflicts. He and his subordinates revamped the education system at Fort Benning. The changes he fostered are still known as the Benning Revolution. Later in his life, Marshall went on to author the Marshall Plan for reviving postwar Europe and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
World War II
In August 1940, two officers and 46 enlisted volunteers of what was known as the Parachute Test Platoon, made their first airborne jump over Lawson Field at Fort Benning after intensive training. Observers from several countries including Germany and the Soviet Union attended. These 48 were the seed that grew into the branches of America's Airborne Infantry.Image:Crew of 37mm. anti-tank gun, in training at Fort Benning, Georgia, clean and adjust their weapon. - NARA - 196275.jpg|thumb|The crew of a 37 mm gun M3 anti-tank gun, in training at Fort Benning, Georgia, April 1942
During World War II, Fort Benning had with billeting space for 3,970 officers and 94,873 enlisted persons. Among many other units, Fort Benning was the home of the 555th Parachute Infantry Company, whose training began in December 1943. The unit's formation was an important milestone for black Americans, as was explored in the first narrative history of the installation, Home of the Infantry. The battalion, later expanded to become the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion and nicknamed the Triple Nickels, was trained at Fort Benning but did not deploy overseas and never saw combat during World War II.
During this period, the specialized duties of the Triple Nickels were primarily in a firefighting role, with over one thousand parachute jumps as smoke jumpers. The 555th was deployed to the Pacific Northwest of the United States in response to the concern that forest fires were being set by the Japanese military using long-range incendiary balloons. The 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion was activated 15 July 1940, and trained at the Fort. The 17th Armored Engineer Battalion became active and started training 15 July 1940.
Racial killings
On 28 March 1941, the body of Private Felix "Poss" Hall was found hanged in a shallow ravine near what is now Logan Avenue. Born on 1 January 1922, in Millbrook, Alabama, he enlisted in the Army in August 1940. He was assigned to serve in the 24th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, an all-Black segregated unit formed after the Civil War. Two cousins and his best friend from Millbrook were also stationed at Fort Benning and bunked near him. Hall was known for being friendly and popular, and worked at the base sawmill. On 12 February he told his friends that he was headed to the post exchange for Black servicemen after his work shift. He was last seen alive around 4:00 p.m. in Block W, an all-white neighborhood between the mill and post exchange. He did not appear at bugle call the next morning, and was declared a deserter, nearly a month after his disappearance.His body was found by soldiers on 28 March 1941, hanging against the edge of a ravine in a wooded area. His death was officially declared a homicide, although military officials speculated he had committed suicide. A Fort Benning physician examined his body on 8 April and ruled it a homicide. A noose tied to a sapling was wrapped around his neck, his feet had been bound by baling wire and attached with a rope to other saplings, and his hands were tied behind him. The position of his feet indicated that he had attempted to pile dirt beneath his feet to help alleviate the pressure on his neck.
His murder became widely reported in Black newspapers throughout the country, and the only known publicly available photograph of Felix was published in The Pittsburgh Courier. The FBI conducted a 17-month long investigation, but ultimately no one was charged for the murder of Hall. On 3 August 2021, the Army unveiled a marker in memory of Felix Hall at the site where he was last seen alive. A memorial event was also held during the unveiling of his marker. His name is inscribed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
On 23 March 1941, Private Albert King, a Black serviceman, was killed by Sergeant Robert Lummus, who was White, following an altercation on a bus. After a night of drinking, King, Pfc. Lawrence Hoover, and their girlfriends, were riding on a bus around 3:30 a.m., back to their barracks. King was shouting and "cussing", according to the driver and other Black passengers. The driver stopped the bus near the Fort's gates and Sergeant Lummus, a Military Police motorcycle officer, boarded the bus. When Lummus tried to take King and Hoover off the bus, King ran out the front door, and Lummus hit Hoover with a blackjack.
After taking Hoover into custody, Lummus later found a Black soldier walking back toward the main post. Lummus approached King and threatened to arrest him. When King claimed that Lummus could not do so, Lummus shot King five times, killing him. During the trial, later that day, it was claimed that King had drawn a pocket knife when approached by Lummus, though Hoover denied that King had a pocket knife with him. Lummus was found not guilty of murder and transferred the next day to Fort Knox.