Overview
- Crews began removing the three statues from Capitol Square on Friday, August 28, 2026, and the Virginia Department of General Services said the state gifted the monuments to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
- The sculptures honor Confederate generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and William “Extra Billy” Smith and Confederate surgeon Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, each of which stood on the Capitol grounds for more than a century.
- A removal bill that passed the Senate earlier in 2026 stalled in a House committee, and lawmakers later included authority for the transfers inside the state budget during negotiations.
- The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation said it will preserve the monuments and relocate them to battlefield sites in the Shenandoah Valley, framing the move as conservation and historical interpretation rather than destruction.
- The removals close a long-running debate in Richmond about public commemoration that dates back to 2017 and intensified after 2020, and they may reshape what figures are publicly honored while drawing objections from heritage groups such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy.