Contractors removed three Confederate statues from Virginia’s Capitol Square on August 30, 2026, under a line item included in the state budget passed by the General Assembly in June. The statues removed included one of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, which had been in place since 1875, a statue of Confederate Army surgeon Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, erected in 1904, and a statue of William “Extra Billy” Smith, a Confederate general and former Virginia governor, dating back to 1906.
Budget Item 71 #1C mandated the Department of General Services to remove all Confederate monuments and memorials from the square, according to a spokesperson for the agency. The budget allocated $1.8 million for this work in the fiscal 2027-28 budget, which took effect on July 1.
The removal of the statues occurred after a standalone removal bill failed earlier in the year. Former state Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced SB636 during the 2026 session, which passed the Senate on a party-line vote but stalled in the House Appropriations Committee before the language was incorporated into the budget. Ebbin, who has since joined Governor Abigail Spanberger’s administration, stated that the removal reflects a change in whom the state honors rather than altering historical facts.
“This doesn’t change the history of the Civil War,” Ebbin said. “It changes who we choose to venerate on the Capitol lawn.”
State Senator Mike Jones (D-Richmond) acknowledged the governor’s administration for completing efforts that began in 2018. “I’m glad that our current administration, Governor Spanberger, that they’re ensuring that we continue what we began some years ago,” Jones said.
Governor Spanberger, who campaigned as a moderate, signed 10 executive orders on her first day in office. In April, she enacted legislation that removed tax exemptions from Confederate-linked organizations and halted the renewal of specialty license plates featuring Robert E. Lee.
The budget language specified that the statues would be transferred to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, whose CEO, David Walker, indicated that they would be relocated 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,” Walker said.
Additionally, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) commented 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 noted that the three pedestals could take up to a week to remove, with no replacements planned.