A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order halting the imminent dismantling of a Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery dedicated to the reconciliation of North and South after the Civil War.
U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston, a Trump appointee, issued the order Monday in response to a lawsuit filed Sunday against the Department of Defense by Defend Arlington, which is associated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, according to The Associated Press.
A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed a similar lawsuit last week on behalf of the same plaintiffs as they tried to block the memorial’s removal, but Save Southern Heritage Florida spokesperson David McCallister told the AP that the more recent lawsuit is different because it alleges removing the memorial will disturb grave sites.
McCallister maintained that the memorial’s removal, which began Monday morning, undermines the national reconciliation it was intended to symbolize.
Dedicated by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 and funded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the memorial features a bronze woman crowned with olive leaves while holding a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, according to Arlington National Cemetery. At her feet is an inscription that quotes Isaiah 2:4: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
The 32-foot pedestal features 14 shields engraved with the coats of arms of the 13 Confederate states and the border state of Maryland. Detractors of the memorial take issue with some of the reliefs on the pedestal, which they maintain sanitize slavery, depict a “mammy” and perpetuate the “Lost Cause” narrative prevalent in the South during the early 20th century, according to The New York Times.
The statue was among the Confederate memorials slated for removal from military grounds by the independent 2021 Naming Commission that was formed to issue a report to Congress regarding renaming military bases and assets commemorating the Confederacy.
Arlington National Cemetery told The Associated Press that it anticipated the memorial to be completely removed by Dec. 22. However, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army told NYT on Monday it is “complying with the restraining order and has ceased the work begun this morning.”
Another hearing is scheduled on Wednesday.
On Dec. 11, 40 Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin demanding its removal be postponed until Congress completes the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations process. They cited an amendment passed by the House of Representatives in September to “prohibit funds to implement or enforce recommendation of the Naming Commission in regards to the Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery.”
The lawmakers said the historical context of the statue and how it was erected after the 1898 Spanish-American War when Americans from both North and South fought together again under one flag for the first time since the war.
They also mentioned President William McKinley’s commitment during the Peace Jubilee in Atlanta to properly honor Confederate remains when he said, “sectional feelings no longer holds back the love we feel for each other. The old flag waves over us in peace with new glories.”
The lawmakers’ letter further noted how every president since has sent a wreath to the memorial each year as a symbol of national unity.
Noting how Congress empowered the Naming Commission only to recommend the removal of symbols and monuments honoring the Confederacy, the members wrote that “the Reconciliation Monument does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and national unity.”
They argued that because of all the graves encircling the monument, it would be impossible to remove it without desecrating them, which was expressly forbidden regarding anything the commission was empowered to recommend for removal.
The memorial is widely considered one of best works by sculptor Sir Moses Jacob Ezekiel, who is buried at the foot of it.
The first Jewish graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, Ezekiel was roommates there with former President Thomas Jefferson’s great-grandnephew, Thomas G. Jefferson, and the two fought together in the Battle of New Market in 1864. After Jefferson was mortally shot during the battle at the age of 17, Ezekiel cared for him as he succumbed to his wounds over the coming days, and recited John 14 to him as he was dying.
Moses Ezekiel was close friends with Thomas Jefferson’s great-grandnephew, Thomas G. Jefferson, as the two were roommates at VMI. After the Battle of New Market, Ezekiel held the 17-year-old Jefferson in his arms as the latter slowly died, reciting verses from John 14. https://t.co/7Qst9NaOQPpic.twitter.com/2oRgfEIieQ
— Lafayette Lee (@Partisan_O) December 17, 2023
Conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson addressed the planned removal of the memorial during a speech Monday at Turning Point USA’s America Fest in Phoenix, during which he described the act as a symptom of a spiritual force actively destroying the country.
“And I felt [that force] today as they announced they’re going to tear down the monument commemorating the peace between North and South in the Civil War. What is that? […] I read the news that it was stayed by a judge, thank Heaven, but no one showed up to protest it.”
“And I thought, where are the veterans? Where are the descendants of Civil War veterans like me, like many people in this crowd, who had ancestors who fought in that war on both sides — they were all Americans — to stand in front of that monument and say, ‘It’s not yours to destroy. That’s my history, this is my country, I was born here, and you may not do that.'”
“And their position will be, ‘Oh, we’re going to throw you in jail!’ OK, go ahead!”
Federal law prohibits demonstrations at Arlington National Cemetery unless they are approved by the cemetery director.
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