Overview

• The portrait was removed after the 2022 Naming Commission directed West Point to eliminate displays that commemorate or memorialize the Confederacy.
• The canvas is 20 feet tall and depicts a slave guiding Lee’s horse in the background.
• Army communications director Rebecca Hodson said the academy is prepared to restore historical names and artifacts under the current administration.
• Reporting notes uncertainty over how reinstalling the work could comply with the federal removal mandate stemming from the 2021 defense bill.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pursued related actions, including renaming bases for non-Confederate figures who share surnames with former honorees and urging the return of a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.