RICHMOND, Va. — Three Confederate monuments removed from the Capitol Square yesterday are headed to the Shenandoah Valley.
According to an Associated Press report, representatives began removing the monuments Friday as part of a broader effort to remove Confederate memorials from prominent public spaces in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy.
The monuments honor Confederate Gens. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and William “Extra Billy” Smith (who also served as Virginia governor), and Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, a Confederate Army surgeon.
The memorials had stood in Capitol Square, the public park surrounding the state Capitol, for more than a century.
The Virginia General Assembly ordered the monuments removed during its 2026 session, according to the AP.
“This doesn’t change the history of the Civil War,” former Democratic state Sen. Adam Ebbin, who sponsored the legislation, told the AP. “It changes who we choose to venerate on the Capitol lawn.”
Efforts to remove Confederate monuments from prominent public spaces in Richmond date to at least 2018, according to Democratic state Sen. Mike Jones.
“They’re symbols,” Jones said of the monuments.
Is this what the Commonwealth is about?
Is this where we want to direct people to?
It’s not.
The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation will preserve the monuments and relocate them to battlefield sites within the region.