Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) in Arlington, Virginia, initiated the dismantling process of the Confederate memorial that has stood on its grounds since 1914. Confederate veteran and sculptor Moses Ezekiel was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to design and sculpt the monument, which became his most famous work to date and ultimately its final resting place three years after its establishment.
“Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) is required to remove the ANC Confederate Memorial and has initiated a process to prepare for the careful removal and relocation of its Confederate Memorial, located in Section 16 of the cemetery,” reads- one in a recent statement from the cemetery. . “All bronze elements of the memorial will be moved.” The announcement came following last year’s recommendation from the Naming Commission which was once tasked with assessing military assets across the country with Confederate-aligned names for removal.
The Baroque-style memorial consists of a cast bronze female figure representing and honoring the South atop a bronze plinth mounted on an octagonal granite base that incorporates 32 life-size figures representing Confederate soldiers. The biggest point of contention with the memorial is Ezekiel’s depiction of a white soldier leaving to fight on the Confederate side of the Civil War embracing his infant child held by a black woman, fashioned as a “mom” figure loyal and matronly, weeping at her departure. The monument was repeatedly criticized for his white supremacist distortion of history in characterizing African Americans as “loyal slaves” and “faithful black servants” who endorsed the Confederacy. In his 2010 novel Memorial Mania: Public Sentiment in America, art historian and professor at the University of Notre-Dame Erika Lee Doss described the monument as an “illustrated bronze pro-south manual”.
The memorial’s existence became a hot topic again in 2017, after civil rights activist Heather Heyer was killed while protesting at the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, prompting descendants of ‘Ezekiel to send a letter to Washington Post. Living members of the Ezekiel family wrote that the memorial “glorifies the fight for one’s own human beings and, in its depiction of African Americans, implies their collusion.”
“As proud as our family may be of Moses’ artistic prowess, we – about 20 Ezekiels – say to remove this statue,” the letter continues. “Take it out of its place of honor in Arlington National Cemetery and place it in a museum that clearly explains its oppressive history.”
The ANC was not immediately available to Hyperallergic request for comment.
In order to facilitate the proper removal of the monument, the ANC should consult with inter-agency partners to develop a consultation plan and consider public responses to finalize where the bronzes will be moved and to review any potential danger or damage that may occur. could occur as the sculptures are disassembled. A phase II investigation report of the site from March 20 indicated that the monument was individually eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places because it met two distinct criteria: “its unique visual representation of the mythology of the lost cause” and “its design by Moses Ezekiel, a renowned master carver with a personal connection to the Civil War.
The investigation report addressed the potential for unintended damage to the carvings during the dismantling and moving processes, but ultimately “is not expected to have any adverse effect on the graves in Section 16 or on the archaeological resources in this area. ‘, indicating that the intended process is to ‘remove only the bronze commemorative features from the memorial’, leaving the granite base to mark where the structure once stood. The future home of the memorial remains uncertain at this time.
