The nation's biggest Army base by population is named for a 19th-century general who not only has been widely criticized for poor leadership, but who also led an invasion of Kentucky while fighting, well, the U.S. Army.

Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg is often called one of the most controversial commanders of the Civil War. Historians and other commanders have criticized him for poor tactical skills, a penchant for turning victory into defeat by retreating after a win -- as he did in Kentucky -- and simply for being an unusually unpleasant and quarrelsome man.

According to one story, his own troops tried twice to kill him. He has been ranked among the Civil War's worst generals.

Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Goldsboro

This is the only Air Force base named in honor of a Navy officer, according to the base Web site. Like Pope, it was named for an early flier killed in a crash, but in this case a North Carolina native.

Lt. Seymour Johnson was raised in Goldsboro and attended UNC-Chapel Hill in the early 1920s before being accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy and going on to a career as a naval aviator.

In 1937, he volunteered to become a test pilot, and he was killed in a crash in Maryland in 1941, apparently after running out of oxygen at a high altitude. He was credited with more than 4,000 hours aloft.

Camp Johnson, Jacksonville

This Marine training camp is a satellite of Camp Lejeune and the first U.S. base to be named for an African-American, Sgt. Maj. Gilbert "Hashmark" Johnson, a drill sergeant.

From 1942 to 1949, when the military was integrated, the base (then called Montford Point) was the boot camp for African-American troops. About 20,000 trained there, according to the Montford Point Marine Association.

"The initial intent of the Marine Corps hierarchy was to discharge ... African-American Marines after the war, returning them to civilian life -- leaving the Marine Corps an all-white organization," the association Web site says. "Attitudes changed and reality took hold as the war progressed. Once given the chance to prove themselves, it became impossible to deny the fact that this new breed of Marine was just as capable as all other Marines regardless of race, color, creed or national origin."

Johnson, who was one of only two black Marine sergeants major during the war, was one of the big reasons. During the fighting on Guam, he had the rule overturned that kept black Marines out of combat patrols. He went on to lead more than two dozen missions himself.

Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville

The biggest Marine Corps base on the East Coast is named for a man who once commanded (brace yourselves, Corps fans) an Army unit.

Gen. John A. Lejeune was put in command of the Army's 2nd Infantry Division in World War I, the first Marine to lead an Army division.

Later, during a long tenure as the commandant of the Marine Corps, he is credited for several of the service's institutions and traditions, including training and equipping the Marines for the amphibious assaults they performed in World War II, which have been central to the Corps' identity ever since.

Lejeune is widely respected as one of the United State's finest military leaders.

The base's first name was less glorious: Marine Barracks New River, N.C.

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