Virginia completed the removal of three Confederate statues from Capitol Square in Richmond on Friday, continuing a yearslong initiative to relocate memorials honoring the Confederacy from the state capital. The statues, which depicted Confederate Generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and William “Extra Billy” Smith, as well as Confederate Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, had occupied the public park and civic campus near the state Capitol for more than a century.
The Virginia legislature formally ordered the removals during its 2026 session. Former Democratic State Sen. Adam Ebbin, who sponsored the legislation, characterized the action as a distinction between historical acknowledgment and public veneration. “This doesn’t change the history of the Civil War,” Ebbin stated. “It changes who we choose to venerate on the Capitol lawn.” Democratic state Sen. Mike Jones framed the monuments as symbols reflective of the Commonwealth’s values and priorities.
Efforts to remove Confederate statues from positions of prominence in Richmond commenced earlier, with removal initiatives beginning in 2018. The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation announced it would assume stewardship of the relocated monuments, with plans to display them at battlefield sites within the Shenandoah Valley region.
The Virginia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy issued a statement asserting that the monuments were intended as tributes to valor and sacrifice during a significant period in American history. The organization expressed the position that memorials should be displayed consistent with donors’ original intentions, allowing public engagement with and reflection on their meaning.
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