The Office of Army Cemeteries has submitted final design plans to return the Confederate Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, three years after the bronze sculpture was removed under a congressionally mandated review. The proposal, presented Thursday to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, would restore the 1914 monument and reinstall it in the cemetery's Section 16 sometime in 2027.
The Plan Presented This Week
According to reports from USA Today, NBC4 Washington and the Washington Post, representatives of the Office of Army Cemeteries laid out the final design proposal at a Thursday morning meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts, the federal panel that advises the government on design matters in the nation's capital.
The plan focuses on restoring and reinstalling the monument's bronze sculpture rather than rebuilding it from scratch. Its granite base and foundation were left in place when the sculpture was taken down in December 2023, so the bronze work will return to its original setting on an existing granite pedestal in Section 16, the area of the cemetery where the remains of more than 400 Confederate soldiers were reinterred in the early 1900s.
The sculpture will stand about 33 feet tall, including its roughly 30-foot bronze figure and three-foot granite base. Conservation work will include cleaning the bronze, repairing cracks and structural damage, and installing a new internal support structure. New interpretive signs will also be placed along the memorial to give visitors what the Army describes as "clear, accurate and factual information" about the sculpture and its history.
The Army has previously estimated the restoration would cost about $10 million. Cemetery officials say the monument is expected to bear the name of its sculptor, and that work is expected to be complete sometime in 2027, though no specific installation date has been announced.
A Statue With a Contested History
The Confederate Memorial was unveiled in 1914 at a ceremony presided over by President Woodrow Wilson. It was created by sculptor Moses Ezekiel, a Confederate veteran who was the first Jewish graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Ezekiel himself is buried near the monument's base.
The bronze work has long been a subject of controversy because of its imagery. The sculpture features a large female figure representing the South crowned with olive leaves, along with depictions of Southern society before and during the Civil War — including a Black woman portrayed through the racist "Mammy" stereotype holding the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner into war.
How the Memorial Was Removed
The memorial stood among the graves of Confederate soldiers until the Army dismantled it in December 2023. The removal followed the recommendations of a congressionally mandated independent commission charged with identifying military property that honored the Confederacy, which found the memorial's imagery and historical message inconsistent with the military's obligation to remove Confederate commemorations.
The commission's 2022 final report called for the monument's removal as part of a broader review of military bases and assets commemorating the Confederacy. After the sculpture came down, the granite base remained in place, and the bronze work went into storage pending conservation.
What the Army Says About the Return
The push to restore the monument began last year, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the sculpture would return to Arlington. In a post on X in August 2025, Hegseth said the statue "never should have been taken down by woke lemmings," adding that "unlike the Left, we don't believe in erasing American history — we honor it."
Administration officials have framed the project as part of a broader effort to reverse the removal of historic monuments, describing the 2023 dismantling as an attempt to erase American history. NBC4 Washington reported that Hegseth cast the return as part of President Donald Trump's push to combat what the administration calls the erasing of American history.
Critics of the move argue that placing the memorial back in a national military cemetery would once again confer official honor on the Confederacy, regardless of any new interpretive signage.
What This Means
The Army's presentation of final design plans marks the most concrete step yet toward reversing one of the most high-profile monument removals of the past decade. While the return had been announced in principle last year, this week's filing with the Commission of Fine Arts means the project is now moving through the formal design and approval process that precedes any construction at Arlington.
The inclusion of new interpretive signage suggests the Army is attempting to address the controversy directly — acknowledging the memorial's contested imagery while still restoring it to its place of honor. Whether that satisfies critics remains an open question.
The project also signals how the current administration is treating the broader debate over Confederate symbols on federal property. The 2023 removals were carried out under a law passed by Congress; reversing them without new legislation sets up a potential clash over who ultimately controls the nation's commemorative landscape.
What Happens Next
The Commission of Fine Arts reviewed the final design this week, and 7News reported that the panel approved the statue's final design. The Army has not announced a specific installation date beyond its 2027 target.
The bronze sculpture is currently undergoing conservation work — cleaning, structural repairs and corrosion treatment — before it can be moved back onto its granite base. When the reinstallation is complete, visitors to Section 16 will once again find the 33-foot monument standing over the 442 grave markers that identify the Confederate soldiers buried there, with new signage explaining its history.
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