West Point begins removing Confederate symbols, including Robert E. Lee portrait, from campus display

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is starting to remove Confederate statues and symbols from its campus, in compliance with a federal order formally set in motion by the Department of Defense this past October. 

Over the holiday break, which began on Dec. 18, the country's oldest service academy launched what its superintendent described as a "multi-phased process" to either take down or modify displays that memorialize the Confederacy, including an immediate plan to move a portrait of Robert E. Lee wearing a Confederate uniform into storage.

Lee, once a U.S. military general who was ultimately appointed commander of the Confederate army toward the end of the Civil War, was a graduate and superintendent of West Point and lingered as a significant presence on the academy's New York State campus for more than a century after his death. In addition to the portrait of Lee displayed in Jefferson Hall, West Point also has a stone bust of his likeness, bronze plaques dedicated to him and other Confederate figures, and a gate, road, and series of academic facilities bearing his name.