On Tuesday, August 5, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared that the Arlington “Reconciliation Monument” was going home. By 2027, the beautiful sculpture dedicated to turning “swords into plowshares” and healing the wounds of war will be placed back in the cemetery. It should never have been removed. Last time I checked, Arlington is a cemetery, and as per the regulations of the “Naming Commission”, Confederate symbols in cemeteries were prohibited from being stained by their greasy fingers.
Hegseth posted that the leftist “lemmings” who tore it down were attempting to erase history. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin accepted the monument from the United States government two years ago. It has been collecting dust in crates in a warehouse. Youngkin agreed to a “fifty year lease” for the monument to be placed back in Arlington after a careful “restoration” of both the base and the monument itself. The base suffered some damage with the sculpture was removed and heavy equipment rolled around the area. But according to the federal government, no graves at the base were disturbed. Right.
The Army estimates it will cost around $10 million to restore the monument and place “panels” around the sculpture “contextualizing” the monument, Reconstruction, the War, and reconciliation. That gives me pause.
We’ve seen that create problems before. Over a decade ago, I was involved in writing “panels” for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association to provide “context” for the State flags around the based of the glorious relief. Those have since been changed. Allowing for open interpretation never ends well, particularly when the “lemmings” typically control the levers of power.
The woke mob will certainly litigate the move, and we can expect more stupid pieces like this one from The Daily Beast. The Congress is currently attempting to block Hegseth from using defense funds from renaming several military installations that were recklessly changed during the Biden administration. This has some Republican support, just as the original Naming Commission was created over President Trump’s veto in 2020 when a majority of Congressional Republicans voted with Democrats to override his veto. You never put your faith in the Republican Party.
No one on the Naming Commission has publicly commented on the restoration of the monument, which was arguably the greatest trophy in their iconoclastic purge. They will.
Hegseth correctly argued that the monument was erected in the spirit of fraternity and compromise. Republicans proposed it, funded it, and laid the cornerstone. When the monument’s sculptor, Moses Ezekiel, died, Republican Warren Harding spoke at his funeral. The monument became is literal headstone. Perhaps the turning point in the recent effort to restore the memorial came when the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War passed a resolution declaring their support for the restoration of the memorial. Or maybe Youngkin wants to be president. I would like to think the move has noble origins, but then I would have to trust Republicans.
Defend Arlington has worked tirelessly to have the monument restored. Their campaign certainly had something to do with the federal government’s about face.
The Abbeville Institute contributed to their collection of essays on the monument, and we produced a video detailing the effort to take it down. We hope that had some impact as well.
For now, I am cautiously optimistic that the monument will be restored and remain in place for several decades. There are still unanswered questions and too many open ended promises to do a victory lap, but at least it’s a start.
The views expressed at AbbevilleInstitute.org are not necessarily the views of the Abbeville Institute.
“Cautiously optimistic” is probably the best attitude for now. However, you can bet that the worst enemies for restoration will be those who claim to be something they are not. And I don’t mean the usual “progressive” suspects.
I’m suspicious of “contextualization” too. But in the meantime:
Moses Ezekiel was part of the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets called into action in the Shenandoah Valley to prevent Yankee forces from molesting supply lines and then turning to support Grant outside Richmond, May, 1864. Called into action by Gen. John Imboden and soon commanded by Gen. John C. Breckenridge, they were instrumental in the victory at New Market, Va., May 15. In the aftermath of the battle, he found his friend and roommate, first year “rat”, 17 years old Pvt. Thomas Garland Jefferson seriously wounded on the battlefield. Welcomed to the nearby New Market home of Mrs. Clinedinst and her family, Ezekiel nursed his friend, remaining with him constantly until he died three days later.
Ezekiel joined the Corps in defense of Richmond for the rest of the War. He found time to visit the nearby home of young Thomas Jefferson and presented to his grieving mother a lock of his hair. Returning to complete his studies at VMI, class of 1866, Ezekiel met Robert E. Lee, president of neighboring Washington College. Seeing his artistic abilities, Lee encouraged Ezekiel to portray their Confederate cause as “worthy”. In time moving to Rome, Italy, Ezekiel created many classical sculptures, including of Monticello’s Thomas Jefferson and, indeed, many depicting the worthiness of the Confederate cause. Besides the Reconciliation Monument, among them are a remarkable life size statue of Stonewall Jackson that stood at VMI for over a century. There’s a picture of Ezekiel in his Rome studio with a giant Confederate battle flag on the back wall. At the end of his life, following a long career in Europe as an accomplished and acclaimed classical artist, he chose his epitaph to read:
Moses J. Ezekiel
Sergeant of Company C
Battalion of Cadets
Of the
Virginia Military Institute
Thank for posting this info, Gordon. I had no idea and have viewed each of the statues you named in person. If I had known all this I would have viewed each with even more awe and reverence.
You’re welcome, James. Another of Moses’ monuments is “Virginia Mourning Her Dead” which keeps vigil over his friends, the New Market KIA buried at VMI. You can find more about New Market with a search of “thomas garland jefferson mother crim” and mix in “ezekiel”. It’s a well documented event. Jefferson’s image is the official icon of the Shenandoah National Battlefield Park.
I wish there were secure contacts, here. I would send you the story I’ve written of the boy’s life, service, his wounding and death, compiled from eulogies, letters from his father in VMI’s archives, others from “Mother Crim” and Ezekiel, and from memoirs of his family. Included is the aftermath as Lee’s retreat went past the home southwest of Richmond, and Ezekiel’s story, above. It’s a helluva story, if I say so myself. It’s done well presented at SCV meetings. In any event, much of the story is online.
Thanks again, Gordon. I will check into all you passed on.
God bless you and your SCV brothers.
Having had the opportunity to visit the Virginia Military Institute, I found it very appealing steeped in tradition and history. Confederate military founded colleges like this one, and Texas A&M , the first public college in Texas per Jefferson Davis’ request for Southern states establish A&M colleges with a military presence, have found it unnecessarily difficult to hold on to these traditions. The mindset of the students and alumni standing firm and bending little to the cancel culture movements continues to keep these alive despite uneducated criticisms.
I believe, anecdotally, the VMI alumni have done much to push back. I think the Corps, presently, appreciates tradition. The school isn’t the same as 30 years ago, it certainly wasn’t then what it was when my father matriculated in ’39. Change is inevitable under every circumstance. I don’t see the school reverting to the New Market tradition. General Jackson’s statue hasn’t returned since being removed in 2020 and I could do that in one day with the front-end loader on my 1975 Ford 7000. There just isn’t the will.
Regrettably, just restoring this symbol of ‘reconciliation’ will do nothing to actually fulfill “the spirit of fraternity and compromise” that such a monument was intended to represent. In fact, such a spirit was never a reality, not then and still not now. The mind set of those who removed it was the same attitude of the centralizing victors in the bloodiest conflict in US history and their desire, then and now, is for compliant subservience and fawning obedience.
Thank you, Dr. McClanahan for this article. I’m not seeing this info in the general media unsurprisingly. I haven’t watched your video on the subject, yet, because some days I just can’t cope with the anger that the Yankee lies, disinformation, and general infamy evokes in me. I’m off to sip some Virginia Gentleman – a bit early I know but some days one must ‘medicate’ early – and calm my un-reconstructed Confederate nerves
I can say a lot in support of this video and monument, but this audience already knows the true story. With disclosure of so much political information regarding our original Constitution and restoring the Republic, I know the South will have her finest days ahead where the narrative taught in schools is proven as an intended deception of our history. The evidence of a devious Lincoln can no longer be dismissed as conspiracy theory set up to discredit those finding the truth. Face it, they don’t hide the truth from us, but they don’t teach it to you. The DCArchives has most of it; you can peruse the authentic documents online. Their story doesn’t make sense and that should be enough for people to will the truth be disclosed…. and …..it has started. Deo Vindice
“…cautiously optimistic that the monument will be restored and remain in place…There are still unanswered questions and too many open ended promises to do a victory lap, but at least it’s a start.”
Yes.
Was at Ft. Monroe today. Work on the ground for the 1619 memorial continues. It seems they’re getting fairly close to completion. September maybe? I think when they’re done and have the initial showing, it’s going to be a huge event.