Removal Of Last Confederate Statue In Richmond Approved: Court

RICHMOND, VA — A judge ruled this week that the last remaining Confederate statue in the city of Richmond can be removed.

The statue of A.P. Hill, a Confederate general during the Civil War, stands at the intersection of Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue on top of the general’s burial site.

CNN reported that a Richmond judge ruled on Tuesday the city can move the statue to a museum and take the general’s remains to a cemetery in Culpeper, near where he was born.

Indirect descendants of Hill argued in court that the site was a cemetery and that they had the right to move the monument, according to CNN. But the judge concluded that “the placement and housing of the monument are the city’s to determine.”

The city plans to donate the statue of Hill to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia in Richmond.

The plaintiffs in the case did not oppose the removal of Hill's remains to the cemetery in Culpeper. But they argued that the ownership of the statue should be transferred to them, so they could move it to a battlefield in Culpeper, according to an Associated Press report.

Mayor Levar Stoney told CNN that he is “gratified” by the judge’s decision. “This is the last stand for the Lost Cause in our city,” Stoney said.

Hill was shot dead by a Union soldier on April 2, 1865, in the Third Battle of Petersburg, seven days before Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. The U.S. military honored Hill by naming a fort after him in Caroline County, between Fredericksburg and Richmond.