U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser/Arlington National Cemetery
Officials at Arlington National Cemetery this week will remove a 109-year-old Confederate monument on its hallowed grounds, despite Republican opposition about gutting the nation’s history.
In a press release issued on Saturday, ANC staff noted the facility is complying with a congressional mandate to remove the Confederate Memorial by Jan. 1, 2024.
Safety fencing has already been installed around the site, and the “deconstruction” of the monument is expected to be completed by Friday, the press release explained.
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The announcement came just days after nearly 50 Republicans signed a letter opposing the statue’s removal.
As of Sunday, ANC had not updated its website about the monument, which sits in an area known as Section 16.
On its website about Section 16, ANC notes, “The history of the Confederate Memorial embodies the complex and contested legacy of the Civil War at Arlington National Cemetery, and in American culture generally.”
The webpage further notes that Congress authorized Confederate remains to be reinterred at the cemetery in what is now Section 16 in 1900.
The Confederate monument was built there in 1914.
As of the moment, the Confederate dead will be able to remain in their graves.
ANC’s press release stated, “While the work occurs, the surrounding landscape, graves, and headstones will be protected. During the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction.”
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The ANC website notes that more than 400 former Confederates are buried there.
Soon after it was erected, the monument was also dubbed the Reconciliation Monument. The interment of Confederate veterans decades after the war showed that the facility was a national cemetery and icon of national healing.
As a sign of unity, every president since Theodore Roosevelt sent a floral arrangement to the monument to honor the deceased Confederates, according to the ANC website.
In 2009, Democratic President Barack Obama implemented a change, sending two wreaths to honor Civil War dead. Obama directed one to the Confederate Memorial, and the other to Washington, D.C.’s African American Civil War Memorial, in honor of U.S. Colored Troops, which were units of black soldiers who fought in the war.
On its website, ANC also notes, “The Confederate Memorial offers an opportunity for visitors to reflect on the history and meanings of the Civil War, slavery, and the relationship between military service, citizenship and race in America. … In such ways, the history of Arlington National Cemetery allows us to better understand the complex history of the United States.”
Needless to say that history will become much less “complex” after Friday.
Dozens of Republicans in Congress recognize this.
The monument is coming down because a Pentagon commission created to study Confederate monuments after the death of George Floyd identified it for removal last year.
Last Monday, Fox News reported that 44 House Republicans, led by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, issued a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arguing that the commission surpassed its mandate when recommending that the monument be scuttled.
“Despite bipartisan support for this monument, the Naming Commission, established by the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, clearly overstepped its legislative authority when it recommended that the Department of the Army remove the Reconciliation Monument from Arlington National Cemetery,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.
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“[T]he Reconciliation Monument does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and national unity,” they added.
“Furthermore,” the letter continued, “the Naming Commission’s authority explicitly prohibits the desecration of grave sites. Considering the hundreds of gravestones encircling the monument, it would be impossible for these graves to remain untouched if the Department of the Army proceeds with its proposed removal of the monument – both being a clear violation of Congress’ enacted statute and legislative intent.”
“The Department of Defense must respect Congress’ clear legislative intentions regarding the Naming Commission’s legislative authority, and to move forward with removal of the Reconciliation Monument would be a clear affront to the separation of powers principles outlined by our Founding Fathers in our Constitution,” they concluded.
Florida Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Clearwater, Bill Posey of Rockledge, and John Rutherford of Jacksonville were among the GOP lawmakers who signed the letter.
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