dual personalities

Well, I for one, am glad to hear that the SecDef has changed the name of Fort Bragg Liberty back to Fort Bragg. But with a twist. Fort Bragg was named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, but this time it is named after a different Bragg:

For nearly a century under the designation of Camp Bragg and subsequently Fort Bragg, tens of thousands of Soldiers trained and deployed increases and conflicts around the world in defense of our nation. Fort Bragg has a long and proven history of equipping, training, and preparing our Soldiers to fight and prevail in any operational environment. This directive honors the personal courage and selfless service of all those who have trained to fight and win our nation’s wars, including Pfc. Bragg, and is in keeping with the installation’s esteemed and storied history.

Pursuant to the authority of the Secretary of Defense, Title 10, United States Code, Section 113, 1 direct the Army to change the name of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to Fort Bragg. North Carolina, in honor of Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, who served with great distinction during World War II with the United States Army, and in recognition of the installation’s storied history of service to the United States of America.

Born in 1923 in Sabattus, Maine, Pfc. Bragg entered U.S. Army service and was assigned to the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, and was stationed at Fort Bragg during World War II. Pfc. Bragg fought with distinction in the European theater of operations. He received the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, and the Purple Heart for wounds sustained, during the Battle of the Bulge. During these hellish conditions and amidst ferocious fighting, Pfc. Bragg saved a fellow Soldier’s life by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it 20 miles to transport a fellow wounded warrior to an allied hospital in Belgium.

For nearly a century under the designation of Camp Bragg and subsequently Fort Bragg, tens of thousands of Soldiers trained and deployed increases and conflicts around the world in defense of our nation. Fort Bragg has a long and proven history of equipping, training, and preparing our Soldiers to fight and prevail in any operational environment. This directive honors the personal courage and selfless service of all those who have trained to fight and win our nation’s wars, including Pfc. Bragg, and is in keeping with the installation’s esteemed and storied history.

Well done. 👏👏👏

Today, as you know, is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president. He was a great president and a great writer. Here is a letter he wrote to his Quaker friend Eliza Gurney on September 4, 1864:

My esteemed friend.

I have not forgotten–probably never shall forget–the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten. In all, it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolation; and to no one of them, more than yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay.

Your people–the Friends–have had, and are having, a very great trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma, some have chosen one horn and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this I doubt not; and believing it, I shall receive it, for our country and myself, your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. Your sincere friend

A. Lincoln.

If you have never visited Springfield, Illinois and the Lincoln Home Site and the Presidential Library and Museum, I suggest you do! (Springfield and the Sangamon Valley also enjoy a strong literary tradition with Lincoln, Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters, William Maxwell, among others, hailing from there.)

I regret that I never made it to Brooklyn to visit Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church when daughter #1 lived in NYC. They have a stained glass window depicting Lincoln…

But I will stop in Springfield sometime to visit First Presbyterian Church where the Lincolns rented a pew and regularly attended church services.

In Missouri, while Washington’s Birthday is a federal holiday, Lincoln’s Birthday is still a state holiday, falling on February 12 regardless of the day of the week. We will toast him and remember his funeral in Springfield where at least six Protestant clergymen participated in the service: four from Springfield and two from the East Coast. The Rev. Albert Hale, the 65-year-old pastor of Springfield’s Second Presbyterian Church, offered the introductory prayer. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he knew Lincoln before he was the president. During his prayer he recalled Lincoln as someone to emulate: “Merciful God, bless us, and we pray Thee help us to cherish the memory of his life, and the worth of the high example he has shown us. Sanctify the event to all in public office; may they learn wisdom from that example, and study to follow in the steps of him whom Thou hast taken away.“

Amen.