Army renames Fort Polk as Fort Johnson in honor of WWI Medal of Honor recipient

The Army officially renamed Fort Polk in Louisiana as Fort Johnson on Tuesday in honor of a Medal of Honor recipient, as part of the latest in its string of renaming military bases that had recognized Confederate leaders. 

The fort, which is officially taking the name of Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) and Fort Johnson, was designated in honor of Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black World War I veteran who has received acclaim for single-handedly fighting off a group of raiding German soldiers and saving a fellow soldier from being captured. 

“The Warrior Spirit that burned with in Sgt. William Henry Johnson now inspires generations of Soldiers. Soldiers that will now call JRTC and Fort Johnson home and Soldiers that will continue to come here from all over the nation and the world to train,” Brig. Gen. David Gardner, the commanding general of the fort, said in a statement. 

The change is the most recent in a line of military bases named for Confederate military officers that a congressionally authorized Naming Commission recommended last year that the Defense Department rename. The Pentagon ordered the removal of names and items associated with the Confederacy to begin in January and must finish by Jan. 1 of next year. 

Fort Johnson was initially named in honor of Leonidas Polk, a lieutenant general from New Orleans who was involved in several notable Civil War battles like the Battle of Shiloh, according to the National Park Service. He was killed as his and other Confederate forces attempted to halt the Union advance toward Atlanta in 1864. 

Polk also made a couple of significant military blunders that hampered the South’s war effort and led to a poor relationship with his commanding officer, Braxton Bragg. 

Fort Bragg in North Carolina was renamed Fort Liberty earlier this month to honor the “heroism, sacrifices, and values of the Soldiers, Service Members, Civilians, and Families who live and serve with this installation.” 

Johnson was a porter at Union Station in Albany, N.Y., before he enlisted in the New York Guard’s 15^th New York Infantry Regiment two months after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, according to the National Guard Association of the United States. He joined an all-Black unit, as the military was segregated at the time. 

Johnson was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart in 1996, Distinguished Service Cross in 2002 and Medal of Honor in 2015 in recognition of his heroism. 

The two forts that have yet to be renamed are scheduled to change later this year — Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia and Fort Gordon in Georgia.