By Louis Casiano | Fox News
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that “The Reconciliation Monument,” a Confederate memorial, will be returning to Arlington National Cemetery.
“I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site,” Hegseth wrote on X.
The monument was removed in 2023 amid moves by the Pentagon to remove statues and rename military installations honoring Confederate figures and moved into a Defense Department storage facility in Virginia.
“It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it,” Hegseth said.
I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site.
It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike…
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) August 5, 2025
“I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site.
It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
https://theblaze.com/columns/opinion/exclusive-moses-ezekiels-historic-sculpture-finally-set-for-installation-in-arlington-cemetery-by-the-southern-graves-it-once-marked
At the time the monument was removed, GOP lawmakers said it does not honor the Confederacy, but instead, commemorates reconciliation and national unity.
The memorial was unveiled in 1914 by then-President Woodrow Wilson, after being commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Congress had authorized the reinternment of Confederate remains to Arlington National Cemetery just 14 years prior.
Ezekiel was a Jewish American sculptor who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. After the war, General Robert E. Lee encouraged him to become a sculptor, and he attended the Virginia Military Institute and studied anatomy, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is also buried with honors at Arlington.
Moses Ezekiel’s historic sculpture finally set for installation in Arlington Cemetery, by the Southern graves it once marked (The Blaze | Christopher Bedford)
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and the Center of Military History reached a deal this week to install Moses Jacob Ezekiel’s famed grave-site sculpture in Arlington Cemetery, the Beltway Brief has learned, after Virginia accepted a request from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to display the statue in the cemetery it was intended for, near the grave of its artist. The display is part of a 50-year loan from the commonwealth and goes a long way toward healing recent desecrations.
The announcement comes just over a year and half after the statue was unceremoniously torn down and shipped to an Old Dominion warehouse by then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“At the request of Moses Ezekiel’s family and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Moses Ezekiel’s sculpture will be returned to Arlington National Cemetery,” Youngkin said in a statement to Beltway Brief, “where he is buried and where his legacy as a renowned American artist and decorated veteran can be honored.”
The sculpture, first erected a century ago, was initially swept up in the moral fervor of the early 2020s — but mistakenly so, because the story it tells is exactly the kind of story Americans needed to hear in those angry years. . . . (read the rest)
Who Would Destroy the Reconciliation Monument at This Time of Year?
This restoration should be repeated across the country, where monuments were erected to the Americans who believed they had the right to secede from the union and create their own nation. Only 1 in 6 families in the South (and many in border and Northern states) owned slaves in 1861. One quarter of all military age men (16-45) died believing in the cause they fought for; they did not fight to save slavery. They rebelled against the economic oppression, armed invasion, and naval blockade of the federal forces, to protect their families, property, and means of livelihood. They were all pardoned by President Johnston in accordance with the desires of Abe Lincoln. By act of Congress all Confederate graves and monuments became US Veteran cemeteries protected by the federal government. That is part of US history.