Confederate Gen. Beauregard: New Orleans Removes Third Confederate Statue

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Masked city workers in New Orleans finished dismantling the statue of Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard early Wednesday, the third monument to the Confederacy removed from the city, officials said. Police began moving pro-monument supporters away from the statue at the entrance to City Park on Tuesday evening in preparation for its removal.

Estimated to weigh between 12,000 and 14,000 pounds, it took more than six hours for the statue to be separated from its pedestal. Workers Tuesday night covered their faces and wore helmets, in case of a repeat of past tensions, but though both sides of the issue were on hand the situation was largely peaceful. (To receive more New Orleans news and alerts, please subscribe here.)

The Beauregard statue was the third of four Confederate monuments New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has pledged to take down. The Battle of Liberty Place monument and a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis are gone, as Patch reported earlier this month.

The process of removing all Confederate memorabilia from public view has not been an easy one. On Tuesday, Louisiana's Legislative Black Caucus slammed a state House of Representatives bill that would make it more difficult to remove Confederate monuments, Patch reported. The Louisiana House voted Monday in favor of a bill aimed at protecting Confederate monuments across the state.

Landrieu made his position on removing the monuments clear. The statue of Robert E. Lee, whose likeness stands atop a column in the center of Lee Circle, is the last one slated for removal.

"Today we take another step in defining our city not by our past but by our bright future," Landrieu said in a statement late Tuesday. "While we must honor our history, we will not allow the Confederacy to be put on a pedestal in the heart of New Orleans."

New Orleans has been at the crux of the debate on whether to remove statues that honor Confederate history, which others see as monuments to white supremacy — and tensions have flared throughout the state.

Two men were arrested later in the day for defacing the base of the monument.

Photo by Gerald Herbert/Associated Press