Its history is tied to both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War—the Arlington Estate was originally created as a tribute to George Washington by his adopted grandson, and by an odd quirk of fate, Robert E. Lee wound up temporarily possessing the property at the outbreak of the Civil War. The federal government seized it for military purposes, and it became the site of our most prestigious national cemetery.
The Civil War was, by far, the most deadly war in our history, with over half a million American deaths. At the turn of the 20th century, Congress agreed to intern Confederate soldiers at Arlington and allowed the erection of a monument that became known as the "Reconciliation" monument
| ...that’s the one created by sculptor Moses Ezekiel, a Virginian who was the first Jewish cadet at the Virginia Military Institute, fought on the Confederate side, and asked only to be buried at the foot of what the fashionable artist considered his crowning achievement... |
After the George Floyd riots, the federal government decided to take down monuments with a connection to the Confederacy and to eliminate anything that could be interpreted as celebrating, justifying, or acknowledging the Confederacy as anything other than evil. As part of this effort the "Reconciliation Monument" was put on the chopping bloc.