On Sep. 29 a statue of President Harry Truman was unveiled in Washington’s Congressional Statuary Hall. Truman’s memorial replaces that of 19th century political leader Thomas Hart Benton as one of the two chosen by the state of Missouri.
This event was the fourth in the last few months in which statues of important figures from the Civil War era have been replaced in Statuary Hall. This “monument momentum” began with the removal of the statue of Virginia’s Robert E. Lee in December 2020, which will soon be replaced by Barbara Johns. In July 2022 statues of two men, staunch Unionist James Ingalls of Kansas and Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith of Florida, were replaced by two women, Amelia Earhart and Mary McLeod Bethune, respectively.
Several legislatures have decided to replace other Civil War era figures, but have yet to formalize the process by providing a new statue. Among those new figures will be Billy Graham of North Carolina and Johnny Cash of Arkansas.
As before, I have updated my book, “Civil War in Statuary Hall” to reflect the changes. The only book ever written about this topic, it is available at:
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 