Jefferson Davis' statue has lost the Battle of New Orleans and the monument of the former Confederate president was removed from the corner of Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway before dawn on Thursday.
The statue was erected at the intersection in 1911, reported WWL-TV, but became controversial along with other monuments honoring connections with the Confederacy.
Crews appeared around 3 a.m. to begin the work and the statue was taken down by 5 a.m. Authorities had closed off the area near the monument, noted WVUE-TV.
"After nearly two years of planning and court battles, city officials began the process today of removing the three remaining monuments that prominently celebrate the 'Lost Cause of the Confederacy,'" New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said on his website Thursday.
"The statues that are being removed were erected decades after the Civil War to celebrate the 'Cult of the Lost Cause,' a movement recognized across the South as celebrating and promoting white supremacy."
The Monument Task Committee, a group created to keep the Confederate monuments in their place around New Orleans, blasted Landrieu, noted the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
"Another historic monument was removed under the cover of darkness using amateur, masked workers in armor, unmarked vehicles and equipment, and with a heavy law enforcement presence," its statement said. "This time it was of Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy, but who was also a West Point graduate, a hero of the Mexican-American War, and the United States Secretary of War."
Earlier this month a committee in the Louisiana legislature advanced a bill that would bar municipalities from removing Confederate monuments without first winning approval through a vote.
New Orleans crews took down a monument connected with the Battle of Liberty Place earlier with plans to take down statues of Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard in the future, reported WWL-TV.
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