Confederate statue returning to Arlington National Cemetery, defense secretary announces

Source: Associated Press, via ARLnow

Confederate statue returning to Arlington National Cemetery, defense secretary announces

By The Associated Press and ARLnow.com
Published August 6, 2025 at 11:45AM


Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial (via Arlington National Cemetery/Twitter)
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By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two Washington, D.C.-area statues commemorating the Confederacy will be restored and replaced, in line with President Donald Trump's pushback on recent efforts to reframe America's historical narrative. ... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that a statue commemorating the Confederacy would be returned to Arlington National Cemetery. The statue, which Hegseth referred to as "The Reconciliation Monument," was removed in 2023.

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Arlington's Confederate Memorial

On social media Tuesday, Hegseth said the Arlington statue "never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don't believe in erasing American history -- we honor it."

Link to tweet

In 2022, an independent commission recommended that the memorial be taken down, as part of its final report to Congress on renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as "Mammy" holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.

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Read more: https://www.arlnow.com/2025/08/06/confederate-statue-returning-to-arlington-national-cemetery-defense-secretary-announces/

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At the rededication ceremony, the Army Band can play “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” “Massa's in De Cold Ground,”* and “ Darktown Strutters' Ball.”

* To my surprise, it’s not “Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground.”