General Mark Milley says the Confederacy was an 'act of treason' and the US military needs to take a 'hard look' at bases named after rebel leaders

Confederate Army symbols within the military, including prominent Army bases named for rebel generals, are divisive and can be offensive to black people in uniform, the nation's top officer said Thursday.

'The American Civil War was fought and it was an act of rebellion, it was an act of treason at the time, against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the US Constitution, and those officers turned their backs on their oaths,' Army Gen Mark Milley told a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that some see it differently: 'Some think it's heritage. Others think it's hate.'

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Confederate Army symbols within the military, including prominent Army bases named for rebel generals, are divisive and can be offensive to black people in uniform, Army Gen Mark Milley (pictured Thursday) told a House Armed Services Committee hearing

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Milley did not explicitly say the base names should be changed, but he noted that the Army is now about 20 per cent black (black soldiers pictured at Fort Lee in Virginia on March 31)

'I've recommended a commission of folks to take a hard look at the bases, the statues, the names, all of this stuff, to see if we can have a rational, mature discussion,' Milley told a congressional hearing.  

'There is no place in our armed forces for manifestations or symbols of racism, bias or discrimination,' he said.

The House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for the budget year starting October 1 include provisions for changing the names of 10 Army bases named for Confederate generals. 

Despite Americans' raised consciousness about race issues following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, President Donald Trump has favored keeping the names of 10 military bases from Virginia to Texas that are named for Confederate military leaders. 

Trump has said that he would veto the defense bill if the version that reaches his desk includes a requirement to change the names.

'These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a. history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom,' Trump wrote on Twitter last month.

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'For those young soldiers that go onto a base - a Fort Hood, a Fort Bragg (file image) or a fort wherever named after a Confederate general - they can be reminded that that general fought for the institution of slavery that may have enslaved one of their ancestors,' Milley said 

'The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.'

Milley did not explicitly say the base names should be changed, but he noted that the Army is now about 20 per cent black.

'For those young soldiers that go onto a base - a Fort Hood, a Fort Bragg or a fort wherever named after a Confederate general - they can be reminded that that general fought for the institution of slavery that may have enslaved one of their ancestors,' Milley said.

He recalled an enlisted soldier told him, early in Milley's career while serving at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, that 'he went to work every day on a base that represented a guy who had enslaved his grandparents'.

Fort Bragg was named after Braxton Bragg, a US Army officer who served in the Second Seminole War and Mexican-American War before becoming a Confederate Army general. 

Milley's remarks come during a time when advocates across the country are demanding that statues erected decades after the Civil War, during an era when Southern states were crushing attempts to achieve equality for black people, be torn down. 

After years of little change, a growing number of these Confederate symbols are being removed, prompted by nationwide protests against police brutality and racism that appear to have inspired a profound shift in American thinking.