Crews removed four confederate statues in Baltimore overnight and into early Wednesday morning.

The move comes after the city council voted unanimously to remove the monuments this week following deadly violence at a racially charged rally in Charlottesville over the weekend.

The city's four monuments include the Roger B. Taney Monument, the Confederate Women's Monument, and the Robert E. Lee and Thomas. J. “Stonewall” Jackson Monument at the Wyman Park Dell and the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

All four have been removed. </s> The Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson monuments at Wyman Park Dell were removed with a crowd watching.

The Robert B. Taney monument in Mt. Vernon also came down.

Crews are on the site of the Confederate Women’s monument at University Parkway to take that one down.

This comes just days after the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution Monday calling for the immediate deconstruction of these monuments. </s> BALTIMORE — Confederate monuments have been removed overnight in Baltimore.

Local news outlets report that workers hauled the monuments away early Wednesday, days after a white nationalist rally in Virginia turned deadly.

WBAL-TV reports that a crane removed a monument to Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson" from its pedestal around 3 a.m. and placed it on a flatbed truck 45 minutes later.

Photos taken by The Baltimore Sun shows workers taking away a monument dedicated to the Confederate Women of Maryland.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh told the newspaper that crews began removing the city's four Confederate monuments late Tuesday and finished around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Pugh said the monuments "needed to come down." The mayor watched as workers removed the statues in the dark. </s> BALTIMORE — Confederate monuments have been removed overnight in Baltimore.

Local news outlets report that workers began hauling monuments away early Wednesday, days after a white nationalist rally in Virginia turned deadly.

WBAL-TV reports that a crane removed a monument to Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson” from its pedestal around 3 a.m. The TV station says the statue was placed on a flatbed truck 45 minutes later.

Photos posted on social media show people standing on top of the base where the Lee and Jackson monument used to stand.

Photos taken by The Baltimore Sun shows workers taking away a monument dedicated to the Confederate Women of Maryland. </s> BALTIMORE (WJZ) — After crews removed Baltimore’s confederate statues from their pedestals overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, they are now sitting under tarps in a city-owned lot.

Mayor Catherine Pugh has said she would like for them to end up in one of Maryland’s confederate cemeteries, and explained at a Wednesday morning press conference that she was unsure of their whereabouts after they were taken down.

As it turns out, they are under police protection somewhere in Baltimore. WJZ’s Sky Eye Chopper 13 got aerial footage of them Thursday. You can watch that above.

Crews removed four monuments: the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway, the Roger B. Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place and the Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson Monument in the Wyman Park Dell.

RELATED: The History Of The Now-Removed Confederate Statues Of Baltimore

On Monday night, the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution calling for the immediate deconstruction of these monuments, days after a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that drew white nationalists and counter-protesters turned violent.

“Unite the Right” organizers said one of the reasons behind the event was the city’s plan to remove a Robert E. Lee monument from a park there.

One woman died and several were injured when a car was plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters. Shortly after, a Virginia State Police helicopter that officials said was assisting with the rally crashed outside Charlottesville, killing the pilot and a trooper.

WJZ was on the scene for the monument removals in Baltimore, which Mayor Catherine Pugh said began late Tuesday night and finished around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook </s> Four Baltimore statues linked to the Confederacy were removed from their resting places early Wednesday, just a day after city officials approved a plan for the monuments' immediate “destruction” -- and coming amid a national furor over a violent white nationalist gathering in Virginia organized to protest the removal of a Confederate Statue there.

Photos and videos shared on social media showed crews with heavy machinery lifting the Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson memorials and loading them onto flat-bed trucks before hauling them away.

“It’s done,” Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh -- who stood and watched the statues come down -- told the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday. “They needed to come down. My concern is for the safety and security of our people. We moved as quickly as we could.”

The Baltimore City Council approved the plan Monday night to remove four Confederate statues from the city’s public spaces, a reaction to the rally in Charlottesville, Va. which resulted in the death of one woman Saturday at the hands of an accused white supremacist.

Calls to several officials, including the mayor and the city council president, were not immediately returned Wednesday morning.

The other statutes removed include the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway and the Roger B. Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Fox Baltimore reported that crews began setting up just before midnight on Tuesday and worked until around 5:30 a.m. to remove all the statues.

Pugh said the quick overnight action was designed to avoid violent conflicts like what Charlottesville experienced.

Some vandals had spray painted and otherwise defaced the statues prior to their removal, however.

Resident Derek Bowden told the Baltimore Sun that while he agreed with the city’s decision to remove the statues, racism and so-called white privilege run deeper than just the statues.

“It’s major in its own right, but it’s small when it comes to the bigger battle,” the 59-year-old photographer told the newspaper. “It’s a bigger battle. This is a small victory. There’s a larger issue we have to look at, with being Americans and upholding the Constitution … to protect all people.”

The actions taken by Baltimore officials are not unique to the Maryland city. Across the country, the events in Charlottesville moved leaders to plan to wipe away remaining symbols of the Old South.

Two statues were taken down immediately, in Gainesville, Fla., where the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a Confederate soldier known as "Ole Joe," and in Durham, N.C., where protesters used a rope to pull down a Confederate monument dedicated in 1924.

A 21-year-old college student was arrested Tuesday for her involvement in taking down the statue in North Carolina.

The changes were publicized as President Trump defended Confederate statues in wide-ranging remarks.

"This week it's Robert E. Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jackson's coming down," Trump said during a visit to Trump Tower in New York. "I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?"

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> Under the cover of night, a crew prepared to remove the statue of former Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney from the grounds of the State House early Friday morning.

The Department of General Services will remove the bronze likeness of Taney from its base and then cover the base in plywood, according to an email outlining the plan obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

The statue will then be moved to a secure storage facility for the Maryland State Archives.

The move comes after mounting pressure to do away with the Taney statue culminated in the State House Trust voting Wednesday to remove it. Potential changes to the historic building and its grounds must be approved by the four-member trust.

Taney was chief justice of the Supreme Court and author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and found that black Americans could not be citizens.

The decision has led Taney to be linked to leaders of the Confederacy. Efforts to remove his statue in Annapolis over the years have failed.

But such efforts became more urgent in the past week, and the Annapolis statue — installed in 1872 — is the latest monument linked to Confederate leaders to go.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered middle-of-the-night removals of four monuments in the city this week: one of Taney, another of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and a Confederate Women’s Monument. The Democratic mayor’s decision came a year and a half after a city panel recommended that the monuments be moved or altered to add more historical context.

The Baltimore monuments were stored under tarps in a city lot under police protection.

The Taney statue in Annapolis was under close watch by Maryland Capitol Police officers all week. In advance of the late-night removal, a team of workers inspected the statue and took measurements at midday on Thursday.

In the evening, no-parking signs were posted around narrow State Circle, the street that surrounds the State House.

The monument removals were spurred by last weekend’s rally by Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. — ostensibly to protest plans to remove a statue of Lee there. The rally turned deadly: A counter-protester was killed when a Neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove his car into a crowd, and two police officers monitoring the scene died when their helicopter crashed.

When the Maryland State House Trust members were polled by email on Wednesday, three members voted for removal: Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, who represents Republican Gov. Larry Hogan on the trust; Democratic House Speaker Michael E. Busch; and Charles L. Edson, who represents the Maryland Historical Trust. The trust’s fourth member, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, did not vote.

Miller sent a letter to Hogan Thursday evening saying the vote lacked transparency because it was held over email rather than in public.

“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller wrote. “This was not an ordinary matter of business before the Trust.”

The State House Trust rarely meets in person, often casting votes by email for matters such as approving new plantings on the grounds or giving the go-ahead for performances in the building.

Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, acknowledged “the inflammatory and derogatory language” and the fallout of the Dred Scott decision. But he noted that Taney also “served with distinction” in a series of public offices, including as a state lawmaker, state attorney general and U.S. attorney general.

Miller also noted that Taney freed his slaves and remained loyal to the Union. Miller said Taney’s “complex history” is often lost amid discussion.

Doug Mayer, a spokesman for Hogan, said “Miller is completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney. We have to agree to disagree.”

Miller said the installation of a statue of late Justice Thurgood Marshall — the first African-American appointed to the high court — on the opposite side of the State House was “a very public and purposeful compromise to give balance to the State House grounds recognizing our State and our Country have a flawed history.”

President Donald J. Trump, who was criticized this week for saying blame for the Charlottesville violence was shared by both sides instead of condemning the white supremacist groups, weighed in on the removal of Confederate monuments in a series of tweets Thursday morning.

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” the Republican president said on Twitter, a day after Baltimore removed its monuments. “You can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson — who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!” </s> Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney from the grounds of the State House, ending the monument’s 145-year perch on the prominent spot in Annapolis.

At 12:20 a.m. Friday, flatbed trucks with equipment including a large crane pulled onto State Circle, the street that surrounds the State House. Workers cordoned off the front lawn of the historic building and placed straps around the statue.

Just before 2 a.m., the statue was slowly lifted from its base and clipped a few tree branches as it was guided onto a flatbed truck and wrapped. The statue will be moved to a secure Maryland State Archives storage facility, according to an email outlining the operation obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

The move comes after mounting pressure to do away with the Taney statue culminated in Republican Gov. Larry Hogan announcing his support for removing it and the State House Trust voting Wednesday to do so. Potential changes to the historic building and its grounds must be approved by the four-member trust.

Taney was chief justice of the United States and author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, which upheld slavery and found that black Americans could not be citizens.

The decision has led Taney to be linked to leaders of the Confederacy. Efforts to remove his statue in Annapolis over the years have failed.

But such efforts became more urgent in the past week, and the Annapolis statue — installed in 1872 — is the latest monument linked to the Confederate era to go.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered middle-of-the-night removals of four monuments in the city this week: one of Taney, another of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument and a Confederate Women’s monument. The Democratic mayor’s decision came a year and a half after a city panel recommended that the monuments be moved or altered to add more historical context.

The Baltimore monuments were stored under tarps in a city lot under police protection.

The Taney statue in Annapolis was under close watch by Maryland Capitol Police officers all week. In advance of the late-night removal, a team of workers inspected the statue and took measurements at midday on Thursday.

In the evening, no-parking signs were posted around narrow State Circle.

About two-dozen onlookers gathered around the street as word spread that the statue might come down. About 1:20 a.m., sprinklers turned on, dousing onlookers and workers until the water was shut off about 15 minutes later.

Gwen Norman of Baltimore happened upon the crowd watching the removal of the statue after a night out in Annapolis with friends.

She was pleased that Baltimore had removed its Taney statue and three Confederate monuments, and felt fortunate to witness the Taney removal in Annapolis.

"It was a beautiful thing to wake up and see something so beautiful happened when I was asleep," said Norman, 27.

"It was nice to see Annapolis get prettier tonight," said her companion, 30-year-old Ian Wolfe of Frederick.

The removals were spurred by last weekend’s rally by Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. — ostensibly to protest plans to remove a statue of Lee there. The rally turned deadly: A counter-protester was killed when a Neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove his car into a crowd, and two police officers monitoring the scene died when their helicopter crashed.

When the Maryland State House Trust members were polled by email on Wednesday, three members voted for removal: Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, who represents Hogan on the trust; House Speaker Michael E. Busch; and Charles L. Edson, who represents the Maryland Historical Trust. The trust’s fourth member, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, did not vote.

Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, called for the statue’s removal Monday. “It certainly doesn’t belong there,” the speaker said. “It's the appropriate time to remove it.”

He said leaving it in place after white supremacists openly rallied “would send a message that we condone what took place, that slavery is alright.”

Miller, who does not support removing the statue, sent a letter to Hogan Thursday evening saying the vote lacked transparency because it was held by email rather than in public.

“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller wrote. “This was not an ordinary matter of business before the Trust.”

The State House Trust rarely meets in person, often casting votes by email for matters such as approving new plantings on the grounds or giving the go-ahead for performances in the building.

Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, acknowledged “the inflammatory and derogatory language” and the fallout of the Dred Scott decision. But he noted that Taney also “served with distinction” in a series of public offices, including as a state lawmaker, state attorney general and U.S. attorney general.

Miller also noted that Taney freed his slaves and remained loyal to the Union. Miller said Taney’s “complex history” is often lost amid discussion.

Doug Mayer, a spokesman for Hogan, said “Miller is completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney. We have to agree to disagree.”

Hogan previously supported keeping the Taney statue in place. He reversed course this week, saying removing the monument was “the right thing to do.”

“While we cannot hide from our history — nor should we — the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history,” Hogan said Tuesday in a statement.

Miller said the installation of a statue of late Justice Thurgood Marshall — the first African-American appointed to the high court — on the opposite side of the State House was “a very public and purposeful compromise to give balance to the State House grounds recognizing our State and our Country have a flawed history.” </s> Confederate-era monuments were quietly taken down in the middle of the night in the US city of Baltimore.

Journalists in the Maryland city reported on Twitter that the statues were being removed days after a Baltimore city council vote on the issue.

The memorials in the city include the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway, the Roger B Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place, and the Robert E Lee and Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson Monument in the Wyman Park Dell.

Confederate-era monuments fell back into the spotlight at the weekend when a civil rights activist died during violence at a far-right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia against plans to removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, who commanded the Confederate army of northern Virginia.

Journalist Baynard Woods posted video of the Taney and Women’s monuments being driven away.

Alec MacGillis, another journalist, posted images of the Jackson and Lee statues being taken down.

The Baltimore mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, announced the creation of a special commission to review all of Baltimore’s Confederate statues and historical assets in June 2015.

Maryland, a slave-owning state, remained in the union during the civil war, which was fought from 1861 to 1865. But Rawlings-Blake’s commission noted that though 65,000 Marylanders fought for the north, 22,000 fought for the Confederacy.

Other cities and states accelerated their plans to remove Confederate monuments following the violence in Virginia.

Only two statues were taken down immediately, in Gainesville, Florida, where the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a Confederate soldier known as “Ole Joe”, and in Durham, North Carolina, where protesters used a rope to pull down a Confederate monument dedicated in 1924.

On Tuesday evening Donald Trump insisted that not all of those participating in the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville on Saturday were neo-Nazis or white supremacists, drawing a rebuke from senior Republicans and praise from David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who was at the protest.
Several Confederate monuments are taken down overnight in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, including the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument, Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Confederate Women's Monument and the Roger B. Taney sculpture. The Baltimore City Council unanimously voted to remove the monuments on August 14.