22. Fort Pickett, Blackstone, Virginia
Originally designated Camp Pickett, Fort Pickett was built on a former Civilian Conservation Corps site in early 1942. The Army dedicated the site on July 3, 1942, at 3 PM, exactly 79 years to the hour following the launching of Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. Large enough to train two full divisions simultaneously, the site continued to expand throughout the Second World War. Pickett’s name was selected for the site because he was a Virginian, and like many of the Confederate officers of the Civil War, he had been lionized in the years which followed the conflict. Though known for his flamboyance and flaunting of regulations by his fellow officers, his surviving family had created a reputation of the perfect Southern officer and gentlemen, not wholly deserved.
Camp Pickett survived many threats to close it down over the years, though it gained designation as Fort Pickett in 1974. Its training facilities are used by the National Guard, active-duty military units, the Virginia State Police, other Virginia law enforcement agencies, and the US Marshal Service, among many other agencies. In 1995 the active-duty Army garrison deactivated and the Virginia National Guard assumed responsibility for operation of the post in 1997. Fort Pickett, Fort Lee, and Fort A. P. Hill give Virginia more bases named for Confederate leaders – 3 – than any other state, with all three named for natives of the Commonwealth who swore multiple oaths of loyalty to the United States, only to violate them in 1861.