This list of Confederate monuments and memorials in Virginia includes public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public works.[note 1]
This list does not include items of a more strictly documentary nature, such as historic markers or battlefield parks if they were not established to honor the Confederacy. Nor does it include figures connected with the origins of the Civil War or white supremacy, as distinct from the Confederacy.
As of 24 June 2020[update], there are at least 239 public spaces with Confederate monuments in Virginia,[1] more than in any other state.[2][3]
Jubal Early Highway, a section of Virginia Rt. 116 in Franklin County, Virginia,[7] from Roanoke City to Virginia Route 122 in Franklin County, is named after him. It passes his birthplace, identified by a historical highway marker. In Roanoke County, it is referred to as "JAE Valley Road," incorporating Jubal Anderson Early's initials.
John Mosby Highway, the designation for most of U.S. Route 50 in Virginia, with portions also called Lee Highway, in Fairfax and Arlington, or Lee–Jackson Memorial Highway in Chantilly.[1]
Eastville: Confederate Monument (1913). "Erected by Harmanson-West camp Confederate veterans, the daughters of the Confederacy, and the citizens of the Eastern Shore of Virginia to the soldiers of the Confederacy from Northampton and Accomack Counties. They died bravely in war, or, in peace live nobly to rehabilitate their country. A. D. 1913."[12]
Pearisburg: Confederate Medal of Honor Monument (1995). Inscribed is the Jefferson Davis quote, "It is a duty we owe to posterity to see that our children shall know the virtues and rise worthy of their sires."[14]
Powhatan: Powhatan Troop Confederate Memorial (1999)
Winchester: Confederate Soldiers Monument (1916) – in front of former courthouse, now museum. Plaque reads: "In honor of the Confederate soldiers from Winchester and Frederick County who faithfully served the South."
Plaques (1870) of Robert E. Lee and George Washington hang on either side of the altar at Christ Church, where both were parishioners. Following a unanimous vote of its board in 2017, the church announced the plaques would be removed in 2018 once a new location of "respectful prominence" is identified.[16][17][18]
Robert E. Lee hitched his horse in Berryville, Virginia, while on his march to Gettysburg
Berryville: Memorial (1986) and "hitching post" where Robert E. Lee tethered his horse, Traveller, while Lee "paused on his march to Gettysburg" to attended a church service[19]
Brigadier General Elisha F. Paxton Tablet (1980), "In this vicinity Brig. Gen. E. F. Paxton, C.S.A. Aged 35 years, of Rockbridge County, VA. was killed on the morning of May 3, 1863 while leading his command, the Stonewall Brigade in the attack on Fairview"[22]
Robert Edward Lee (sculpture), Henry Shrady and Leo Lentelli, sculptors, 1924. There is no historical link between Lee and Charlottesville, and the City Council of Charlottesville voted in February, 2017, to remove it, and to rename Lee Park, Emancipation Park. This led to the white supremacistUnite the Right rally in August, 2017, in which there were three fatalities. A lawsuit, unresolved as of October, 2018, generated an injunction prohibiting the city from removing the statue or "adding context". The statues were then shrouded in black, but the shrouds were removed in 2018. In the City Council meeting of July, 2018, the name of the park was changed again, to Market Street Park.[23] The statue was vandalized with red paint and the words "Native Land", during the night of July 7–8, 2017; this was "just hours ahead of a rally by the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park."[24] It was defaced again with the word "FREDOM" [sic]; the vandalism was discovered on February 19, 2019.[25] In April, 2019, a circuit court judge ruled that the statues of Lee and Jackson "are war monuments that the city cannot remove without permission from the state."[26] Whether the statute in question applies retroactively to monuments that antedate the law is an issue headed for the state Supreme Court.[27]
Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall") Jackson (sculpture), by Charles Keck, erected in 1921. Originally the Charlottesville City Council had intended to leave it, but following the violence of the Unite the Right rally of August 10–11 (provoked by the decision to remove the Lee statue), the Council voted on September 5, 2017, to remove it, and the park it was located in was renamed Justice Park. A lawsuit blocked immediate removal or "adding context". The statue was also shrouded in black.[28] Legal action forced the removal of the shroud in 2018. At the City Council meeting of July, 2018, the park name was changed a second time, to Court Square Park. As of October, 2018, the fate of the two statues is unresolved. In April, 2019, a circuit court judge ruled that the statues of Lee and Jackson "are war monuments that the city cannot remove without permission from the state."[28] Whether the statute in question applies retroactively to monuments that antedate the law is an issue headed for the state Supreme Court.[27]
University of Virginia Cemetery: Confederate monument (1893), by Caspar Buberl.[13] Justin Greenlee draws a parallel between the erection of this monument, at whose dedication slavery was denied as a cause of the Civil War, and the adjacent cemetery for slaves, which was robbed of bodies for dissection in UVA's School of Medicine and Anatomy.[29]
Previously Washington University, was renamed weeks after Robert E. Lee died as the President of the university.[38]
A large Confederate battle flag and a number of related flags were removed from the Chapel in 2014.[39][40]
Inside Lee Chapel, in place of an altar, is a large marble statue of Lee, recumbent, wearing Confederate battle gear and resting on a camp bed. (Lee is buried with his family in a mausoleum beneath the chapel.)[41]
Francis H. Smith statue (1931). Smith served in the CSA for four years during his tenure at VMI.[1][42]
Virginia Mourning Her Dead, a bronze statue by Moses Ezekiel, dedicated 1903, moved to current location 1912, "honors the ten cadets from the school who fought and died after being wounded on the battlefield near New Market on May 15, 1864.... A ceremony to commemorate the deaths is held every year at the monument on the anniversary of the battle."[42][43]
Stonewall Jackson Monument and Arch (1912): A bronze replica of a 1910 marble statue of Stonewall Jackson on display at the West Virginia State Capitol. First-year cadets exiting the barracks through the archway were in the past required to salute the statue.[42][44]
Colonel James D. Nance Tablet (1912), marks where Nance was killed[22]
Texas Brigade Shaft (1964), "'Who are you my boys?' Lee cried as he saw them gathering. 'Texas boys,' they yelled, their number multiplying each second."[22]
"Lee to the Rear!" Tablet (1903), "Lee to the Rear! Cried the Texans. May 6, 1864"[22]
Parksley: Confederate Monument (1899). Inscriptions read: "They died for the principles upon which all true republics are founded"; "They fought for conscience sake [ sic ] and died for right"; "At the call of patriotism and duty, they encountered the perils of the field and were faithful even unto death." The front of the monument gives this information: "Erected by Harmanson-West Camp Confederate Volunteers in memory of their dead comrades from Accomack and Northampton Counties." The monument was made by Gaddess Brothers of Baltimore of Barre granite, and is about 30 feet tall.[12]
Hagood's Brigade, a monument in the Petersburg National Battlefield. Text on front: "Here a brigade composed of the 7th battalion, the 11th, 21st, 25th and 27th regiments South Carolina Volunteers, commanded by Brig. Gen. Johnson Hagood, charged Warren's Federal Army Corps, on the 21st day of August 1864, taking into the fight 740 men, retiring with 273. // No prouder fate than theirs who gave their lives to liberty." Text on rear: "Placed here by Wm. V. Izlar, a survivor of the charge, aided by other South Carolinians."
Old Men and Boys Monument (1909), in Petersburg National Battlefield. Text: "This stone marks the spot where the old men and boys of Petersburg under Gen. R.E. Colston and Col. F.H. Archer 125 strong on June 9th, 1864 distinguished themselves in a fight with 1,300 Federal Cavalry under Gen. Kautz, gaining time for the defeat of the expedition. // Placed by the Petersburg Chapter U.D.C. May 1909"
A.P. Hill Monument, Caspar Buberl, (1892)[48] Defaced with red paint the night of August 21–22, 2018.[49]
Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Libby Hill Park (1894). Defaced with graffiti in 2015.[50]
Hunter Holmes McGuire statue, on Capitol Square. McGuire was a Confederate veteran, Stonewall Jackson's personal physician, and an influential supporter of the "Lost Cause" view of the Confederacy and the Civil War.
Monument Avenue featured monuments of Confederate leaders.[51] In 2017, city officials started to hold public meetings for community input on the future of the city's many Civil War monuments and statues.[52] In February 2019, in the midst of controversy surrounding a blackface picture in new Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook, former FBI Director and U.S. Deputy Attorney GeneralJames Comey published an op ed in the Washington Post, suggesting that Virginia should get rid of the Confederate statues in Richmond: "Expressing bipartisan horror at blackface photos is essential, but removing the statues would show all of America that Virginia really has changed."[53] On June 4, 2020, Gov. Northam ordered the state-controlled Robert E. Lee monument removed from Monument Avenue. Further, in June 2020 Mayor Levar Stoney and all nine members of the Richmond City Council announced their support for the removal of the remaining four Confederate monuments from Monument Avenue, when the city gets the authority to do so under a new state law that takes effect July 1, 2020.[54]
Robert E. Lee Monument (1890). This was the only monument on Monument Avenue on state rather than city property. In November 2017, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, in response to ongoing clashes at the monument, issued emergency regulations which make a permit necessary for any meeting with more than 10 people, and prohibiting firearms.[55] On January 6, 2020, the monument of Lee was defaced with the words "This is racist" and Jackson's with the words "God is gay".[56] The equestrian statue of Lee was finally removed on 8 September 2021 at the direction of the state government.[57]
Roanoke: In June 2020, the Roanoke City Council voted to start the legal process to remove the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Lee Plaza after the July 1, 2020, date when a new state law removes the prohibition against removing monuments to the Confederate States of America.[58]
Winchester: Stonewall Confederate Cemetery, now a section of Mount Hebron Cemetery. Plaque: "Stonewall Cemetery / 3000 Confederate soldiers rest here. / Dedicated 1866."
Monument to the Unknown and Unrecorded Dead. Front: "Erected A.D. 1879, by the people of the South / To the 829 unknown Confederate Dead / who lie beneath this mound / in grateful remembrance of their Heroic Virtues / And that their example of unstinted devotion / to Duty and Country may never be forgotten." Left side: "Who they were, none know; / What they are, all know." Rear: "On fame’s eternal camping ground / Their silent tents are spread; / While glory guards with solemn round / This bivouac of the dead."
Harrisonburg: Turner Ashby Monument (1898), located on Turner Ashby Lane.[61] In 2019, the monument was vandalized "when someone threw eggs, raw meat, and other substances on it." In February, 2020, it was vandalized with red paint.[62]
The Confederate Memorial in [[Templeton, Virginia]]Templeton: Army of Northern Virginia Memorial Flag located off of I-95 and Highway 301 Is a large Confederate Battle Flag put up by the VA Flaggers accompanied by a Stars and Bars flag and a South Carolina State Flag also on the monument is a sign that says “CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. GENERAL WADE HAMPTON. Army of Northern Virginia. Memorial Flag.[65][66]
Roanoke: In June 2020, the Roanoke City Council voted to start the legal process to rename Lee Plaza after the July 1, 2020, date when a new state law removed the prohibition against removing monuments to the Confederate States of America.[58] -now Freedom Plaza.
Bridgewater: Turner Ashby High School, named for CSA colonel Turner Ashby, the "Black Knight of the Confederacy". The school's football team are the "Black Knights".[70]
Hurley: Hurley High School. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the "Rebels." Confederate iconography, including the Confederate Battle Flag, is prominent throughout the school.[73]
Lexington: Washington and Lee University. See above, under "Other public monuments".
^"In an effort to assist the efforts of local communities to re-examine these symbols, the SPLC launched a study to catalog them. For the final tally, the researchers excluded nearly 2,600 markers, battlefields, museums, cemeteries and other places or symbols that are largely historical in nature."[1]
^Kuhlthau, A. Robert and Harry W. Webb, The Magazine of Albemarle County History, Sculpture in and around Charlottesville: Confederate Memorialsthe Albemarle County Historical Society, Inc. 1990 pp. 14–40
^Donald C. Pfanz (Sep 8, 2001). "The Angel of Marye's Heights". Part 33 of a series on the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg.com. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
^McDaniel, Joyce L., The Collected Works of Caspar Buberl: An Analysis of a Nineteenth Century American Sculptor, Wellesley, Massachusetts: MA thesis, Wellesley College, 1976 pp. 107–09
^Leib, Jonathan I. (2016-09-02). "Separate times, shared spaces: Arthur Ashe, Monument Avenue and the politics of Richmond, Virginia's symbolic landscape". Cultural Geographies. 9 (3): 286–312. doi:10.1191/1474474002eu250oa. S2CID143324432.
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