8. Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia
Robert E. Lee died on October 12, 1870, from the effects of a stroke suffered two weeks earlier. Lee’s interment took place at Lee Chapel, on the campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Within weeks of his death, various groups in Richmond, the former Capital of the Confederacy, explored the means of honoring him for his defense of the city throughout the Civil War. Although Lee was the subject of much criticism for his conduct of the war from former Confederate generals including George Pickett and James Longstreet, he became the symbol of the Lost Cause in the years following his death. By the time of the unveiling of the equestrian statue of Lee in Richmond in May, 1890, he was revered in the South, and widely admired in the North.
The statue was the first of five dedicated to leaders of the Confederacy, all of whom graduated from the United States Military Academy before taking up arms against their country. Another statue honored Matthew Maury, a former US Naval officer who resigned and served in the Confederate Navy. During the war, Maury lobbied for European intervention in both France and Great Britain. All of the statues were erected as Virginia stood against integration in public schools. The elements of the Lost Cause appeared in public schools throughout the state, including those attended by black students. The statues came to be seen as symbols of intimidation representing white supremacy to some, while others viewed them through the lens of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.