Defense leaders to return Confederate memorial to Arlington Cemetery

The news came just one day after the National Park Service unveiled plans to rebuild a statue commemorating Albert Pike, a Confederate brigadier general, just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

The Arlington National Cemetery sculpture — made by Moses Ezekiel, a Confederate veteran — was first installed at the site in 1914 after a campaign by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to promote positive aspects of the separatist movement.

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

Defense Department officials did not say when the monument would be restored.

During his time in office, President Joe Biden made several moves to remove names and symbols honoring the Confederacy at military sites, arguing the pro-slavery message of the movement had no place in the modern fighting force.

But President Donald Trump has repeatedly decried those moves as erasing history. In June, he announced plans to revert the designations of seven Army installations previously named for Confederate fighters, although changed slightly to honor different military individuals without ties to the overthrow of the U.S. government.

Shortly after the Civil War, U.S. officials barred Confederate soldiers from being interned at Arlington Cemetery because of their actions against the union. But a bill passed by Congress in 1900 reversed that, establishing a separate burial area for those troops in Section 16.