Arlington, Virginia — The Trump administration has removed language from Arlington National Cemetery’s website and a cemetery marker that criticized the Confederate Memorial’s portrayal of slavery and the Civil War South.
The 32-foot bronze monument, commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1914, was dismantled in 2023 under a congressionally mandated process to remove Confederate symbols from military property.
Previous Arlington materials described the sculpture as presenting a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy” with “highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” They also explained how its imagery promoted the Lost Cause narrative, which romanticized the antebellum South and minimized slavery. That language has now been removed from both the website and replacement marker, according to The Washington Post.
Catholic University historian Stephen West, who noticed the changes Sunday, told the Post he was “deeply disturbed,” arguing that the earlier descriptions accurately contextualized the monument.
The Army’s current website says the memorial was removed and securely stored in late 2023 and is expected to return to Arlington in 2027 after conservation and refurbishment. It says new interpretive material will provide “clear and accurate contextual information.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the planned return last year as the administration moved to restore several Confederate monuments and displays removed under earlier policies. The Defense Department referred questions about the rewritten language to Arlington National Cemetery, which did not respond to the Post before publication.
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