Fort Lee’s Name Restored: This Time For Black Soldier

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide

During the Biden-Harris administration, military bases named to honor Confederate Army military heroes and politicians were changed to bear the name of less divisive historic figures or ideals.

In Virginia, Fort Lee, near Petersburg, originally was named for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who led the rebel forces during the Civil War. In 2023, it was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams. Lt. General Arthur J. Gregg was the first African-American to reach the rank of an Army three-star General, and Lt. Colonel Charity Adams Earley, the highest-ranking Black woman to serve during World War II.

Now, current Department of Defense leaders, with direction from the White House, are reverting the names of the Confederate leaders for the military installations.

But in restoring the name of Fort Lee in Virginia, Lee now stands for a Black enlisted man Private Fitz Lee, who fought in the Spanish-Americans War.

Fitz Lee enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1889 in the all Black “M Troop, Tenth Cavalry” in Philadelphia. Private Fitz Lee was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, a native of the state, like the famous rebel general.

During the Spanish- American War in Cuba, he was one of four “Buffalo Soldiers” who received a Medal of Honor for valor on June 30, 1898. Many of the Buffalo Soldiers were Civil War Veterans serving in segregated units mostly out west.

The Black soldiers embarked from the steamer USS Florida to rescue wounded Cuban and Americans soldiers from a beach near Tunas de Zaza.

“This was after several previous attempts at rescue, had been frustrated,” said their Medal of Honor citations, recounting their valor after what American historians have called the Battle of Tayabacoa.

Lee received the Medal of Honor in June of 1899 while at a hospital in Texas. He was medically discharged from the Army shortly after, ending a10 year enlistment. He then went to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he lived with fellow retired Buffalo Soldiers.

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“His comrades took care of him while he awaited his disability benefits from the War Department,” according to a biography written by the Congressional Medal Society.

But he died before receiving any of those benefits, except for being buried “with full military honors” at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

The renaming of military installations that bore the names of Confederate Army Generals and soldiers took place in the wake of national protest and unrest spurred by the murder of George Floyd by a White policemen in 2020.

Virginia’s Second District Congressperson Jennifer McClellan said she got involved in the recent effort by the U.S. Secretary of Defense to rename Virginia and other bases without any input from the public.

She is following in the advocacy footsteps of the late U.S. Congresspersons Donald McEachin, who McClellan replaced several years ago. McClellan said in a statement from her office that Fitz Lee was not among the 10 finalists for the renaming commission considered.

McClellan said in a dispatch to the media that the administration’s changes “erases the very thoughtful work including by Donald McEachin, to have a public asset named in a way that fully includes the community.