Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)

Arlington National Cemetery was established in June 1864 as a cemetery for Union Civil War dead. The first military burial at Arlington – William Henry Christman – was made on May 13, 1864, close to what is now the northeast gate in Section 27. Formal authorization for burials was not given by Major General Montgomery C. Meigs (Quartermaster General of the United States Army) until June 15, 1864. but some were battlefield dead, and many were battlefield wounded who died at DC-area hospitals as prisoners of war. For example, in 1865, General Meigs decided to build a monument to Civil War dead in a grove of trees near the flower garden south of the Robert E. Lee mansion at Arlington. The vault was sealed in September 1866. The federal government did not permit the decoration of Confederate graves at the cemetery. As Quartermaster General, Meigs had charge of the Arlington cemetery (he did not retire until February 6, 1882), and he refused to give families of Confederates buried there permission to lay flowers on their loved ones' graves. In 1869, GAR members stood watch over Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery to ensure they were not visibly honored on Decoration Day. Cemetery officials also refused to allow the erection of any monument to Confederate dead The 1898 McKinley speech The federal government's policy toward Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery changed at the end of the 19th century. The 10-week Spanish–American War of 1898 marked the first time since prior to the Civil War that Americans from all states, North and South, were involved in a military conflict with a foreign power. After the Spanish–American War ended in August, a series of celebrations ("peace jubilees") were held in major cities in the United States from October through December. Many Southerners were lukewarm in their support for the war and for President William McKinley's territorial expansion in Cuba and the Philippines, and it was not clear that the Treaty of Paris (the agreement ending the Spanish–American War) would win the approval of the United States Senate. President McKinley made a trip across the Deep South by train in December 1898 to promote Senate ratification of the Treaty of Paris and racial harmony. McKinley saw untended Confederate graves in Fredericksburg, Virginia, during his campaign for the presidency in 1896, and the sight bothered him. In his speech at the Atlanta Peace Jubilee on December 14, 1898, McKinley not only celebrated the end of sectionalism but also announced that the federal government would now begin tending Confederate graves since these dead represented "a tribute to American valor". The speech impressed many Southerners, who saw it as a grand gesture of reconciliation and a symbol of national unification. ==Creation of the Confederate section==

The McKinley speech encouraged Dr. Samuel E. Lewis to seek additional improvements to the care and treatment of Confederate graves. Lewis, a former Confederate States Army (CSA) surgeon who then practiced medicine in Washington, D.C., was the leader ("commander") of the Charles Broadway Rouss Camp No. 1191 of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), a veterans organization for those who fought for the Confederacy. Lewis had inventoried all Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery in early fall 1898 as part of the local group's historic documentation efforts. He discovered 136 identifiable Confederate graves, far more than the six or seven cemetery officials assumed existed. The graves were scattered all over the existing burial grounds, and the headstones were similar to those of civilian employees and African American "contrabands" (runaway slaves). The similarity to the headstones of black people especially angered Lewis. On June 5, 1899, Lewis and other Confederate veterans sent a petition to President McKinley asking that the Confederate dead at Arlington be disinterred and reburied in a "Confederate section". McKinley approved of the idea. Congress approved the bill in 1900 and authorized $2,500 for the plan, Some of the women's societies also saw reburial of Confederate dead in the South as a way of maintaining their relevance and recruiting new members, while others wanted reburial in the South so they could erect pro-Confederate monuments over the graves. Some groups perceived the offer of a Confederate section at Arlington as a sign of Southern accommodationism with the United States. Competition between different women's societies also played a role. For example, the Confederate Southern Memorial Association (CSMA) also opposed the creation of a Confederate section at Arlington. The CSMA was formed in 1900 as an umbrella group for the ladies' memorial associations, which were rapidly losing members. The CSMA feared being absorbed by the UDC, which had formed in 1894 both as a commemorative body and as a benevolent society for Confederate women and patriotic goals. The CSMA sought a way to differentiate itself from the larger body, and so advocated reburial, too—but not in Richmond (as the UDC did) but in local towns and cities throughout the South. Lewis's efforts convinced most members of Congress and relevant administration officials that the women's groups represented only a small minority of Southerners. He did so in part by winning the support of other key Southern groups. First he won over his own organization, the United Confederate Veterans, which in March 1901 unanimously passed resolutions asking the government to proceed with creation of the Confederate section. He also won the support of the Ladies Southern Relief Society, an important Confederate women's group in Washington, D.C. Lewis also won over Congress and the administration by undermining the UDC and CSMA's opposition to the reburial plan. Once more working through his own veterans' group, the UCV convinced a number of government officials that the CSMA was too new (just a year old) to accurately represent Southern views. Lewis dampened the outcry by the CSMA and other ladies' memorial associations by convincing them that their importance in the South would be maintained. Lewis realized that these groups continued to thrive in part because they set the dates for and organized Civil War commemorations. Lewis convinced the CSMA and many Southern women's groups that they would be able to do so at Arlington as well, which would enhance their prestige. These tactics worked: In the late spring of 1901, a delegation from several Confederate veterans' groups visited Secretary of War Elihu Root and convinced him to proceed with the reburials at Arlington. More modern sources provide different numbers, however. One historian says just 128 bodies were reinterred, or 267 bodies were reburied. Other sources pin the number of reinterments at 265, 409, 482, and 500 bodies. Discrepancies may be attributable to a law, the Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. 440), which permitted any Confederate veteran living in or near Washington, D.C., to be buried in the Confederate section at Arlington. The Confederate dead were reburied on of ground on the west side of Arlington National Cemetery. Landscaping of the area was completed in the spring of 1903. ==Building a memorial==

War Department officials laid out the circular pattern of the graves in the Confederate section. The circular area contained a cruciform set of walkways whose north-south axis was parallel to the road that is now McPherson Drive. At the intersection of the walkways was a grassy area surrounded by a circular path. Although the 1900 reburial legislation did not mention a memorial, on its maps the Army Corps of Engineers marked this central grassy area with an "M"—indicating that it was reserved for a memorial. One of the groups that sought to build a memorial was the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Mrs. Mary Taliaferro Thompson of Stonewall Jackson Chapter No. 20 (located in Washington, D.C.) asked the War Department in 1902 for permission to construct a memorial in the Confederate section. Her request was not granted. She asked again in 1903 and 1905, but was turned down each time. In 1904, Robert E. Lee Chapter No. 644, UDC (also located in Washington, D.C.) began raising money for a monument. It had about $111 ($ in dollars) by the end of February 1904, and later raised $1,000 ($ in dollars). Stonewall Jackson Chapter No. 20 also raised $1,000. Mrs. Thompson tried again to win approval for a monument in 1906. This time she was successful, in large part because she worked closely with Representative John Sharp Williams (D-Mississippi), the influential House Minority Leader. On March 4, 1906, Secretary of War William Howard Taft gave the UDC permission to erect a memorial in the center of the Confederate section at Arlington. Taft's letter, however, reserved to the War Department the right to approve the monument's design and inscriptions. On March 13, 1906, Mrs. Lizzie George Henderson, President-General of the UDC, accepted Taft's terms. Taft's letter was made public by Rep. Williams at Confederate Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery on June 4, 1906. Williams called for a monument to be built, and suggested an inscription (which was not used). He then donated the first $50 toward the memorial's construction. But historian Karen Cox puts the organization's founding at a meeting organized by Thompson and sponsored by the UDC on November 6, 1906. Even the list of founding directors is not agreed upon. Herbert says the board consisted of himself as well as Hickey, J.T. Callaghan, James McDowell Carrington, F.M. Hare, the Reverend Doctor Randolph H. McKim, and Judge Seth Shepard. A committee was appointed by the UDC to revise the ACMA's articles of incorporation. Under the new articles, the President-General of the UDC became the ex officio President of the ACMA. The board of directors consisted of a representative from each state in which the UDC had a chapter, with this individual to be appointed by the President-General of the UDC in consultation with the UDC state division president. An Executive Committee was also created. Its membership consisted of representatives from UCV Camp No. 171 and Camp No. 1191; one representative from Camp No. 172 of the SCV; and three representatives to be appointed by the five UDC chapters in the District of Columbia. The executive committee was empowered to appoint (with concurrence of the president) a nine-member Advisory Board, The association's new officers consisted of a president, first and second vice presidents, corresponding and recording secretaries, and a treasurer. An Executive Board oversaw the organization between meetings of the board of directors. The executive board consisted of the first vice president (who served as chairman), treasurer, recording secretary, and corresponding secretary. A representative chosen from the board of directors served as its vice-chairman, and five other members of the board of directors served as members of the executive board. The ACMA's first president was Cornelia Branch Stone, who served from 1907 to 1909. For its part, the UDC supervised the work of the ACMA through a committee composed of eight delegates from each of the five chapters of the UDC then extant in the District of Columbia. The ex officio chairman of the committee was the President of the Division of the District of Columbia. These two committees were established to oversee the work of the ACMA. But, in fact, the UDC agreed to accept the work of the ACMA "without conditions" Fund-raising During the period between the ACMA's formation and its reconstitution, the UDC contributed $500 ($ in dollars). The Washington Post reported that the ACMA had $3,000 to $4,000 ($ to $ in dollars) on hand in December 1906, with a goal of raising $25,000 ($ in dollars). Furthermore, the UDC agreed to donate $1,500 ($ in dollars) annually beginning in 1907 until the memorial was finished. But according to Hilary A. Herbert, the ACMA's First Vice President and the chief executive officer of the association, the ACMA had raised just $3,460 ($ in dollars) by November 1907. In February 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt also endorsed the project in very strong terms. By November 1908, the ACMA reported $8,230 ($ in dollars) in funds raised. This sum increased to just under $13,000 ($ in dollars) in 1909, and to just under $20,000 ($ in dollars) in 1910. In 1910, the UDC sold Christmas Seals to raise money for the memorial. Mrs. Edgar James, UDC member from Florence, Alabama, designed the seals, of which several million were printed. The goal was to raise the remaining $35,000 needed for the memorial, although it is unclear how many Christmas Seals were purchased. By the estimate of the UDC Christmas Seals Committee, $247 ($ in dollars) was raised in 1910 and $230 ($ in dollars) in 1911, whereas just over $700 ($ in dollars) was raised in 1912. In 1916, in an unofficial UDC treasurer's report printed in the magazine Confederate Veteran, the association reported a total of $1,874 ($ in dollars) in total from Christmas Seals sales. ==Designing the memorial==

Choosing an artist Stone stepped down as both UDC and ACMA President in October 1909. One of her last acts was to propose the appointment of a memorial design committee. She suggested creating a seven-member committee and offered for the delegates' consideration the names for six people who might serve on the committee. She asked the UDC convention to ratify her choice as well as pick a seventh member to act as chair. The convention approved her resolution, and selected Stone as the seventh member. Cornelia Branch Stone provides almost the same list, but omits Herbert and includes Mrs. Virginia Faulkner McSherry. The process for selecting an artist to design the memorial was somewhat convoluted. Many artists made inquiries with the UDC about designing the memorial in 1909, and some submitted proposals, but the ACMA declined to consider any design because it was still raising funds. The design committee first met on May 16, 1910. Rev. McKim made the motion that the memorial should depict an event in which General Robert E. Lee attempted to ride into the Battle of the Wilderness to rally his troops. Lee was stopped by a private who seized the bridle of Lee's horse and prevented him from going, declaring that the troops would rally themselves. His motion was accepted. Herbert submitted the proposed design to an undisclosed artist to have a model developed and to get an aesthetic opinion about McKim's idea. Several criticisms were made of the proposal, and at the design committee's next meeting on October 31, 1910, McKim withdrew his suggestion. McKim then proposed that an artist of national renown be selected to propose a design. The UDC was worried that Ezekiel would turn them down. For one, he was rumored to be highly temperamental. For another, he had lost several competitions for federal Civil War monuments (including the prominent Admiral David G. Farragut memorial in Washington, D.C.), and Ezekiel was on public record against art competitions. To placate him, the UDC design committee agreed ahead of time to give Ezekiel complete artistic authority in designing the memorial. Meetings with Moses Ezekiel Ezekiel had already heard about the planned Confederate Memorial long before being contacted by the design committee, Ezekiel lived in Italy, but had returned to the United States on May 24, 1910, for the dedication of his life-size bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson outside the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. He visited President William Howard Taft at the White House before traveling to the university, and it was while waiting to see Taft that the idea for the Confederate Memorial came to him. Herbert and the author Thomas Nelson Page (a friend of Ezekiel's) visited with the sculptor in Washington, D.C., on November 5, 1910. Ezekiel sketched out his idea on a piece of paper for the two men. He also made it clear that he would work in Italy, and would not accept any design input from the ACMA. Hilary Herbert also agrees that Ezekiel was given a free hand. Working out the design The UDC convention opened in Little Rock, Arkansas, just three days after the contract with Ezekiel was signed. Excited by the news that Moses Ezekiel had won the design commission, convention attendees voted to increase the cost of the memorial by $15,000 ($ in dollars) to $50,000 ($ in dollars) to make it larger and grander. He increased the number of figures around the lower portion of the base to 32 from 15, and changed the base from granite to bronze. Ezekiel felt that the monument was the most important commission he ever worked on, and he refused all other work so that he could devote all his time to it. He also discouraged visitors from coming to his Rome studio so that there would be little public discussion of his design. In time, the ACMA design committee began asking Ezekiel for design details, clearly with a mind toward reviewing his work. He declined to give them. A two-thirds size model was finished in early 1912. Ezekiel agreed to donate his services as sculptor, so that all the money set aside for the memorial could go toward the purchase of raw bronze and for the memorial's casting. Just over $12,700 ($ in dollars) had been raised in 1913 alone. As of November 1914, a total of $56,262 ($ in dollars) had been raised for the memorial. ==Building the memorial==

Laying the cornerstone Work on the memorial proceeded on schedule. In June 1912, the ACMA announced that it was planning a dedication to occur 12 months later, just before the Blue-and-Gray reunion at Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. (although that was not true, as the convention was held in San Francisco, California, in 1905.) The organization invited President William Howard Taft to speak to the convention, and he agreed to do so in mid-October. As the date for the cornerstone-laying ceremony approached, more than 10,000 people were expected to attend the event. Plans for the cornerstone ceremony appeared to be disrupted when the 1912 presidential election was held just a week before the event and Taft lost the election to Woodrow Wilson. It was widely expected that Taft would cancel his speech, but Taft reaffirmed his commitment to speak at the cornerstone-laying event. It was considered an important speech, since it was his first speaking engagement since losing the election. The 15th Cavalry Regiment Band provided music for the event, and Bishop Robert Atkinson Gibson of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia delivered the invocation. Tanner lost both legs in the war, became a stenographer, and took eyewitness testimony on behalf of the government in the hours following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He had briefly led the Bureau of Pensions in 1889, and helped organize the American Red Cross. There were murmurs of disapproval from the audience when Tanner spoke. The first delay was small but significant, and occurred in early 1913 when Ezekiel could not obtain copies of the Confederate state shields in a timely fashion. This forced the ACMA and UDC to give up on a June 1913 dedication, Yet more delays occurred. About July, Ezekiel said he needed 10 more days to complete casting, and the UDC changed the dedication date to November 15. But on August 19, an accident occurred in the casting process which delayed delivery of the memorial by yet another three months. The Confederate Memorial consisted of a number of pieces which required assembly. Civil engineer A. C. Weeks donated his services to help prepare the site for the monument, and oversaw the memorial's erection. The memorial was stored in crates not at the Navy Yard but at the Army Quartermaster's headquarters at Fort Myer, next to Arlington National Cemetery. The ACMA decided to uncrate and erect the memorial in early March 1914 (as soon as winter weather permitted), and established a new the dedication ceremony date for April 27. the ACMA had contracted with a Texas firm to provide the granite for the memorial's base. But the company could not furnish enough granite in time to meet the April 27 dedication deadline. The ACMA canceled its contract, and commissioned a Maryland firm to provide the granite instead. The Maryland company said the base would be completed by May 22, so the ACMA rescheduled the dedication for Confederate Memorial Day, June 4. Dedication of the Confederate Memorial was the most prominent project the UDC had ever undertaken, and the organization desired to make it a special occasion. Florence Butler (wife of former North Carolina Senator Marion Butler) chaired the dedication program committee. She called it a "disagreeable job", for it involved declining hundreds of requests from people who wanted to read speeches, sing or play songs, and recite poetry. Butler, however, was convinced that there should be a bare minimum of speeches, and none of them should be lengthy. Dedicating the memorial The dedication ceremony for the Confederate Memorial was held on June 4, 1914. Although numerous dignitaries and Confederate groups were invited to attend, only a single Union veterans' group was asked to do so (because, the UDC said, there was limited seating). The Union veterans' group which was invited was the 23rd New Jersey Regiment, which made a major donation early in the fund-raising process. But its leaders could not be reached and no representative from the unit attended. which entertained the more than 4,000 people who attended the ceremony, The cost of the ceremony was $2,660 ($ in dollars). ==About the memorial==

The Confederate Memorial stood in a circular grassy area in the center of Stonewall Jackson Circle in Section 16 in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. Sculpted in the Baroque style by Moses Ezekiel in his Rome, Italy, studio, the cost of the bronze and casting was about $41,770 ($) The cost of shipping the statue to the United States and erecting it at Arlington National Cemetery was $8,229 ($ in dollars) (although the press reported it as $15,000 [$ in dollars]). The base consists of a rectangular lower base and a taller upper base in the shape of a nearly-square Maltese cross, which together are about high. The two elements which make up the base are of polished Woodstock granite from Maryland, The memorial is richly decorated, At in height, the Confederate Memorial is among the tallest of the memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery. but the obelisk over the grave of Major General Joseph Wheeler is taller (). Figure of "The South" The topmost portion of the memorial consists of a larger-than-life figure of a woman representing the South. decorated with palm branches and four cinerary urns. Low relief numbers on the urns refer to the four years of the American Civil War (1861, 1862, 1863, and "186465"). 32 figures on the mount Below the frieze is a cylindrical mount on which are 32 life-size figures. Minerva attempts to support the figure of a fallen woman (who also represents the South). The woman is leaning against a shield emblazoned with the words "The Constitution." This particular image was inspired by Thomas Nelson Page's 1887 Lost Cause story, Marse Chan: A Tale of Old Virginia. On the east, northeast, north, northwest, and west sides of the cylindrical mount are the remainder of the figures • A shirtless blacksmith leaving his anvil and tools behind as his sorrowful wife looks on; Base The 32 life-size figures stand on an irregular octagonal base. The front (or south-facing side) of this base depicts the Great Seal of the Confederacy in low relief. NOT FOR FAME OR REWARD NOT FOR PLACE OR FOR RANK NOT LURED BY AMBITION OR GOADED BY NECESSITY BUT IN SIMPLE OBEDIENCE TO DUTY AS THEY UNDERSTOOD IT THESE MEN SUFFERED ALL SACRIFICED ALL DARED ALL — AND DIED RANDOLPH HARRISON MCKIM On the northwest face of the octagonal base, in raised letters, are the words: Colonel William Couper, a faculty member at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), praised it in 1933 as "magnificent and impressive". Modern critics have been somewhat more equivocal. Keith Gibson, executive director of the VMI museum system, says the Confederate Memorial is a "superb example of Ezekiel's style and imagery", and one of the artist's most significant works. In 2007, The Washington Post reporter Linda Wheeler found the memorial ornate and romantic and praised it as a vivid reflection of Victorian artistic taste. Historian Erika Lee Doss agrees, calling it "a pro-southern textbook illustrated in bronze". In 2020, Arlington National Cemetery installed a plaque near the statue, informing visitors that the memorial features "highly sanitized depictions of slavery". ==History of the memorial==

In August 1915, Secretary of War Lindley Miller Garrison determined that the Confederate Monument should be cared for by the federal government under the authority granted by the Act of June 8, 1906. As of November 2013, the Confederate Memorial remains one of three sites at Arlington National Cemetery mentioned by name in the Code of Federal Regulations where public memorial services may be conducted. (The others are the Memorial Amphitheater and the John F. Kennedy Grave.) Final financial issues A total of $56,262 ($ in dollars) was raised by the UDC for the memorial by November 1914. Many UDC leaders felt fundraising should continue since the Little Rock convention of 1910 had implicitly promised to pay Ezekiel more money. The resolution which enlarged the memorial and increased the amount of money budgeted for it read: "...that the monument in Washington shall cost not less than $50,000, with the hopes of $75,000, and that a contract be made to this effect...". Although Ezekiel declined to press the issue, UDC leaders felt morally bound to try to pay him the additional $25,000 ($ in dollars). In November 1914, with nearly all the costs of the memorial, its erection, and dedication paid, there remained a memorial fund balance of $1,771 ($ in dollars). This money was paid to Ezekiel. At the Savannah convention of 1914, the delegates agreed to pay Ezekiel a total of $8,229 ($ in dollars) above the $40,000 already sent to him. Savannah convention raised just $1,504 toward this sum, and the UDC general treasury donated another $1,000 from its treasury. Burials at the memorial Burials in the Confederate section continued after the Confederate Memorial was completed. The first of these was Thomas Findley, who was buried on June 11, 1914, just days after the dedication ceremony. His interment, however, proved controversial because the War Department gave him full military honors. This created widespread anger nationally among GAR members because Findley was not honorably discharged from the armed forces of the United States, as required by law. Four notable burials occurred at the compass points of the Confederate Memorial, and stand out from the rest of the graves nearby for not being part of the concentric circles of burials. These are the graves of Moses Ezekiel, Lieutenant Harry C. Marmaduke, Captain John M. Hickey, and Brigadier General Marcus J. Wright. His body was buried on the east side of the memorial, and a small granite pedestal surmounted by a bronze plaque placed at the head of the grave. The second of the four notable burials was that of Brigadier General Wright, which occurred on December 29, 1922. He was interred on the south side of the memorial. The third burial was that of Captain Henry H. Marmaduke, the last known surviving officer of the ironclad warship CSS Virginia (which famously fought the in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862). A midshipman at the time of the battle, he lived in the District of Columbia after 1883 and was buried on the west side of the memorial on November 17, 1924. The last notable burial was that of Captain John M. Hickey, who was buried on the memorial's north side on October 3, 1927. It is unclear why these four were buried next to the memorial and not elsewhere in the Confederate section. Ezekiel, Wright, and Hickey all played major roles in creating the Confederate section and bringing the memorial into being, but it is less clear why Marmaduke warranted burial at the foot of the memorial (although his notable war service may have justified it). Also unclear is why no other notable burials occurred next to the memorial. Other history of the memorial The Confederate Memorial was the focus of Confederate Memorial Day exercises in the Washington, D.C., area. President Woodrow Wilson attended the first four events (1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918) held at the memorial, although he spoke only at that of 1917. Although media coverage of the event was sparse in the 1930s, more than a thousand people attended the 1942 ceremony. Just 500 attended in 1946, 400 in 1948, and 200 in 1951. About 150 people attended the 2007 event. Another set of memorials was proposed for the Confederate section in 1931. The idea was sparked by a controversy over the burial of LaSalle Corbell Pickett, wife of Major General George Pickett (CSA). Pickett died in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 30, 1875. After a brief interment in a cemetery in Norfolk, his remains were reburied in the Confederate military section of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, on October 24, 1875. LaSalle Corbell Pickett died on March 22, 1931. Her wish was to be buried next to her husband, but Hollywood Cemetery officials refused, citing regulations that only men could be buried in the Confederate section of Hollywood Cemetery. Mrs. Pickett's grandson and eldest surviving male descendant, Lieutenant George E. Pickett III, was outraged by the cemetery's decision. He sought to have his grandmother buried in the Confederate section of Arlington National Cemetery, and have his grandfather's remains disinterred and brought to D.C. for burial beside her. Lieutenant Pickett then conferred with representatives of the War Department and Colonel Robert Lee Longstreet, son of Lieutenant General James Longstreet. The three parties devised a plan to erect statues to Generals Pickett, Longstreet, and Robert E. Lee in the Confederate section. The three statues would be grouped together where Jackson Circle and McPherson Drive met, creating what Pickett and Longstreet called a "tri-hero corner". Additionally, Longstreet conceived of a site adjacent to the Confederate section where Confederates could be buried or reburied, and additional memorials to them erected. He brought his idea to War Department shortly after the tri-hero corner concept was broached. Alarmed not only at the loss of Pickett's remains but at a potential shift in focus from Richmond to Arlington, Hollywood Cemetery officials quickly agreed to inter Mrs. Pickett next to her husband. With this decision, the rationale for a tri-hero corner largely went away, and neither it nor Longstreet's memorial section plan were implemented. A second Confederate memorial was proposed for Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. It is unclear who or what group made the suggestion (although The Washington Post implied it was a project of the Sons of Confederate Veterans), but it was proposed to inscribe the names of leading Confederate figures on the columns on either side of the apse in Memorial Amphitheater. When the UDC learned of the proposal, many of its members wanted to add the names of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to the columns as well. A resolution to this effect was offered at the UDC convention in 1937. However, delegates amended the resolution on the floor to deny UDC support for the changes unless the name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was added as well. The resolution was then adopted. But only Congress had the authority to change the pilasters, and no legislation to add names was ever introduced. Confederate Memorial Day ceremonies moved to Arlington Memorial Amphitheater from the Confederate Memorial in 1936. Although wreath layings and other brief ceremonies were still conducted at the base of the memorial, most of the event was held in the amphitheater. The ceremonies from the amphitheater (but not the memorial) were first broadcast on radio by NBC in 1937. but returned to the amphitheater in 1942. The 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Confederate Memorial was noted with a ceremony on Confederate Memorial Day hosted by the United Daughters of the Confederacy on June 8, 2014. Presidential wreaths Beginning with Woodrow Wilson in 1919, almost every President of the United States sent a wreath to the Confederate Memorial Day exercises. Truman resumed the tradition in 1951, and a presidential wreath continued to be donated each year for the next four decades. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush declined to send a wreath to the ceremony, citing infighting among Confederate groups. Bush declined to send a wreath again in 1991 and 1992. President Bill Clinton resumed the tradition in 1993, and it was continued by his successor, President George W. Bush. Like most such monuments, this statue intended to rewrite history to justify the Confederacy and the subsequent racist Jim Crow laws. It glorifies the fight to own human beings, and, in its portrayal of African Americans, implies their collusion. As proud as our family may be of Moses's artistic prowess, we—some twenty Ezekiels—say remove that statue. Take it out of its honored spot in Arlington National Cemetery and put it in a museum that makes clear its oppressive history. Removal . In 2021, Congress established the Naming Commission in response to the George Floyd protests. The Commission set out to examine the ways in which the military continued to honor the Confederacy and provided recommendations on removing and renaming all Department of Defense items "that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America." One of the suggestions was to remove the Confederate Memorial at Arlington, even though it memorialized the deaths of those who served involuntarily and Congress had expressly prohibited dishonoring them. In January 2023, the Department of Defense accepted the commission's recommendations, and began plans to remove the memorial by the end of 2023. Plans were made for the statue to be removed and relocated, following a public consultation planned for autumn 2023. It is the first removal of a war memorial from Arlington National Cemetery. Users of the memorial, including the Sons of Confederate Veterans, filed four lawsuits attempting to block the removal. In December 2023, a federal judge temporarily blocked removal of the monument after hearing reports of graves being disturbed during the removal process. The judge reversed the decision after touring the site and confirming a lack of disturbance related to the removal. On December 20, 2023, Team Henry Enterprises, contracted through the U.S. Army, removed the statue by crane. Team Henry also removed the Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond, Virginia, the Lee Monument in Charlottesville, Virginia, and multiple other Confederate memorials in the state. All bronze elements of the memorial were removed later in the day, with the granite base and foundation left in place to avoid disturbing graves near the memorial. Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin has made arrangements for the memorial to be moved to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park, on land owned by the Virginia Military Institute. Plans for return On August 5, 2025, it was announced that the monument would be reinstated, after resolutions were passed by both the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War along with the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. On August 5, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced in the Conservative opinion website "The Blaze" that the monument would return to Arlington National Cemetery. Hegseth said, "It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the left, we don't believe in erasing American history — we honor it." The Statue is set to return by 2027. The US Army estimated the cost of the restoration to be ten million dollars. ==Notes==