From Pickett to Barfoot: Nottoway National Guard post is first to remove Confederate name

BLACKSTONE – The first of nine military installations to be renamed through a Congressional directive changed its name Friday from a Confederate general to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient who began his military career at that post.

Fort Pickett, on the outskirts of Blackstone in Nottoway County, officially became Fort Barfoot in an hour-long ceremony in a hangar at the Blackstone Army Airfield. As a breezy blew through the hangar’s open door, members of Col. Van T. Barfoot’s family joined Virginia National Guard leaders and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, unveiled the new sign that will be put up at the post’s main gate just off state Route 40.

Barfoot, a Mississippi native who began his decades-long military career at what was then Camp Pickett, was awarded the Medal of Honor for singlehandedly taking out three Nazi machine gun nests, stopping three panzer tanks and capturing 17 prisoners on May 23, 1944 near Carano, Italy. In addition to serving in World War II, he also saw action in Korea and Vietnam before retiring and becoming an advocate for veterans’ services.

Maj. Gen. Tim Williams, adjutant general of the Virginia National Guard, called Barfoot “a selfless servant” whose name best suits the mission and training at the post by the Virginia National Guard. The Guard took over management of the fort in 1997 when the U.S. Army garrison there was inactivated.

“The name will change, but I guarantee the mission will not,” Williams said. “The next generation of warriors will be trained here.”

Fort Barfoot became the first military post to have its name changed under a directive of the 2020 Defense Authorization spending bill. At that time, Congress directed nine military installations across the South to remove the names of Confederate Civil War heroes and replace them with more socially inclusive names. Fort Pickett was originally named after Maj. Gen George Pickett, a Richmond native who led Southern forces at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 that many historians claim turned the tide of the Civil War from the Confederacy to the union.

“Welcome to Fort Barfoot,” Lt. Gen. Jon Jansen, director of the Army National Guard, said to thunderous applause from hundreds of people gathered in the airfield hangar.

Barfoot died in 2012 at the age of 92. His daughter, Margaret Nicholls, said her family was “proud of the man we called Dad, Granddad and Great-Granddad.” Nicholls spoke of her father’s devotion to veterans’ affairs from the time he retired in 1974 until his death.

“He loved God, country and especially his family,” Nicholls said.

Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recalled three years ago when the panel was drafting the defense spending bill when Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, suggested adding the renaming amendment to the spending package. Originally, he said, there was resistance to the amendment because some in the room felt they were only trying to rewrite history.

“There is a difference between writing or rewriting history, and choosing whose names to honor,” Kaine said. After hours of discussion, the committee voted 27-1 to agree to the amendment.

The Naming Commission, the Pentagon panel put in charge of the task, started with 3,663 names, whittling it down to 2,380 names, then 461 and then 87 before deciding the final nine names to go on the posts. Two of the commission members were in attendance for the ceremony, and Kaine asked them to stand, joking, “I don’t know how you did it!”

Honoring his heritage

The name-change ceremony was partly a nod to Barfoot’s military service and partly a nod to his Native American heritage. Barfoot’s grandmother was a member of the Choctaw nation in Oklahoma.

Choctaw representatives joined their Virginia brethren in a traditional dance honoring Barfoot. Some of Barfoot’s family members were asked to join in the four-minute event that saw them parade around the hangar while a band played traditional tribal music.

Prior to the ceremony, the Native Americans performed a separate dance before placing the colors of their nations behind the podium.

The rest of the name changes will take place beginning April 27 when Fort Lee in Prince George County becomes Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of retired Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and the late Col. Charity Adams, two Blacks who rose to high ranks in the Army.

More:Fort Lee officially gets its new name, Fort Gregg-Adams, next month

Jensen, the National Guard director, said those ceremonies will be well-planned but they will not have the same aura that the Fort Barfoot ceremony had. He thanked the Native Americans in attedance for that.

'None will be this special or this unique," Jensen said.

Fort Barfoot is located in Nottoway County, about 30 miles west of Petersburg.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Va. National Guard post is first to change Confederate name