Defense Leaders to Return Confederate Memorial to Arlington Cemetery

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday announced the controversial “Reconciliation Monument” sculpture will return to Arlington National Cemetery in coming weeks, the latest move by administration officials to return symbols honoring the Confederacy to military sites.

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The monument was often referred to as “the Confederate memorial” and featured a bronze woman standing on a 32-foot pedestal. Below her, details featured the coat of arms of the 13 Confederate States (and Maryland), with figures of Confederate soldiers and two Black figures implied to be slaves.

In 2022, an independent commission recommended the memorial be taken down, calling it “problematic from top to bottom.” It was removed in December 2023 and stored in a secure Department of Defense facility in Virginia for the last few years.

In a social media post Tuesday, Hegseth criticized that decision, calling critics “woke lemmings” and saying the history of the Confederacy should be honored.

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