Three Confederate statues were removed from Virginia’s Capitol Square on Friday, after contractors carried out a directive included in the state budget approved by the General Assembly in June.
Among the monuments taken down was the statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a fixture on the Capitol grounds since 1875. Crews also removed the 1904 statue of Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, a Confederate Army surgeon, along with the 1906 monument to William “Extra Billy” Smith, a Confederate general who served two separate terms as Virginia’s governor.
The removals were required under Budget Item 71 #1C, which instructed the Department of General Services to clear Capitol Square of all Confederate monuments and memorials, according to an agency spokesperson. The budget language also provided funding for the effort, with lawmakers allocating $1.8 million in the fiscal 2027-28 spending plan that took effect July 1.
Friday’s work followed an earlier legislative setback for supporters of removing the statues. Former state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) sponsored SB636 during the 2026 session, and the measure passed the Senate along party lines. It later stalled in the House Appropriations Committee before lawmakers inserted the removal provision into the budget instead.
Ebbin, who has since left the legislature to join Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration, said the decision was not about erasing history, but about reconsidering whom Virginia chooses to publicly honor.
“This doesn’t change the history of the Civil War,” the Alexandria Democrat said. “It changes who we choose to venerate on the Capitol lawn.”
State Sen. Mike Jones (D-Richmond) credited the governor’s administration with finishing a push he dated to 2018.
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“I’m glad that our current administration, Governor Spanberger, that they’re ensuring that we continue what we began some years ago,” Jones said.
Spanberger campaigned as a moderate before signing 10 executive orders on her first day in office. In April, the former congresswoman signed legislation stripping tax exemptions from Confederate-linked organizations and ending renewal of specialty license plates featuring Robert E. Lee.
The budget language directed that the statues be given to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, whose chief executive said they would be moved to battlefield sites in the Shenandoah Valley.
“Preservation is more about the future than the past, and ensuring the preservation of the Capitol Square monuments is a part of that clear vision,” CEO David Walker said.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) said last week at a Boston campaign event that “the Confederacy is still alive and well” and that “that’s all MAGA is.”
The Department of General Services said the three pedestals could take up to a week to remove and that no replacements are planned.