This story was last updated at 6:30 p.m.

The battle over the future of Confederate monuments in Dallas appeared to be over Wednesday as the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Oak Lawn sat wrapped in a harness, destined for storage at an undisclosed location away from public view.

But as crews struggled to figure out exactly how to remove the 14-foot-tall, 81-year-old sculpture of Lee and an unnamed soldier on horseback from Lee Park, U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater issued a temporary restraining order that gave the statue a reprieve.

The dramatic turn meant the "historic day for the city of Dallas," as Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway dubbed it amid the spectacle of the attempted removal, would wait at least one more day -- and possibly longer.

The monument had been set for immediate removal following a morning of impassioned public speeches from both sides and a 13-1 vote of the City Council. But the crews' troubles gave a victory, if only for a day, to Dallas resident Hiram Patterson and the Texas chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Hiram Patterson

In their federal court complaint, they argued that the City Council had improperly voted on the item on a briefing day and had violated the First Amendment to serve their "Orwellian agenda."

"The city's planned suppression of the monuments' political speech is a first step in a totalitarian move to determine authorized forms of political communication and to punish unauthorized political speech," the complaint states.

The complaint was filed by North Carolina-based attorney Kirk Lyons, who has been dubbed a white supremacist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Lyons disagreed with that characterization, saying the law center has "its own agenda." Lyons said he was hired because he has "been in the trenches a long time" and is effective.

1 / 13Dallas City Council member Dwaine Caraway (left) came to see the Robert E. Lee statue Wednesday before the attempt to remove it from Lee Park in Dallas. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 2 / 13Dallas Councilman Philip Kingston (left) shakes Dwaine Caraway as they came to see the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 3 / 13Crewman from Howell Crane and Rigging, Inc measure the height of the Robert E. Lee statue before they remove it from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 4 / 13A crewman from Howell Crane and Rigging, Inc measures the height of the Robert E. Lee statue before they remove it from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 5 / 13People gathered in the shade, including past local NAACP president Arthur Fleming (in yellow shirt) and pastor Clarence Glover Jr. of First African Freedom Church (right), to witness the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 6 / 13A City of Dallas worker sets up barricades around the Robert E. Lee statue before they attempted to remove it from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 7 / 13Crewman from Howell Crane and Rigging, Inc attempt to remove the Robert E. Lee statue from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 8 / 13People gathered all afternoon in the shade trees to witness the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 9 / 13A unicyclist pedals past the Robert E. Lee statue as they attempted to remove it from Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Earlier in the day the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 for immediate removal of the monument to the Confederate general with a soldier at his side. The removal was halted though by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 10 / 13Dallas City Council voted 12-1 to remove the Robert E. Lee statue at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas on Wednesday, September 6, 2917. Councilmember Rickey Callahan did not vote. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)(David Woo / Staff Photographer) 11 / 13People react after the Dallas City Council voted 12-1 to remove the Robert E. Lee statue at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas on Wednesday, September 6, 2917. The council voted 12-1 to remove the statue and Councilmember Rickey Callahan did not vote. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)(David Woo / Staff Photographer) 12 / 13Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, left, listens as Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway makes a final plea for a yes vote during the Dallas City Council meeting debating weather to remove the Robert E. Lee statue at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas on Wednesday, September 6, 2917. The council voted 12-1 to remove the statue and Councilmember Rickey Callahan did not vote. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)(David Woo / Staff Photographer) 13 / 13Dallas City Council members debate on weather to remove the Robert E. Lee statue at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas on Wednesday, September 6, 2917. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)(David Woo / Staff Photographer)

"We've gone well beyond this hysteria about Confederate monuments. We're the speed bump. If the American people don't stand up to this night of the long knives on monuments, it won't stop with Robert E. Lee," Lyons said, invoking Adolf Hitler's violent 1934 purge of dissenters from the German government.

Had the crews succeeded in removing the monuments earlier in the day, the order might have been moot. Earlier in the afternoon, Michael van Enter -- the conservator hired by the city to oversee the statue's removal -- thought the crews would be able to remove it with relative ease. But issues began to pile up: The first crane was too small. The statue was 3 feet taller than historical records had indicated. And the sculpture wouldn't budge from its base.

Shortly before 4:30 p.m., workers tried to cut the statue from the base. And that's when the temporary restraining order was delivered to the park, halting all work -- and sending home hundreds who had gathered to witness the removal of the Lee statue put in place in 1936.

Fitzwater had signed the order an hour earlier, but he put the responsibility of serving the documents on the plaintiffs.

"It looked like the city of Dallas was going to do what other cities have done -- vote the monument down and move it immediately before anyone could do anything," Lyons said. "We had a bad feeling and started working as soon as we made the determination it was fixing to happen."

A frustrated van Enter, who called the statue "a fine piece of art with a very dark history," faulted the City Council and said the workers had been on the verge of finishing the removal of the statue.

"Had the vote come earlier, we could have started moving it earlier," he said. "But everyone had to have their speeches. We weren't allowed to move things into position until they were ready to go."

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Fitzwater's order sent the City Council, which had appeared mostly jubilant in the morning, into a late-afternoon closed session. Before the council vote, Mayor Mike Rawlings had defended his decision to hold the vote on a briefing day, which the city's rules of procedure forbid except in an emergency or architectural or construction matters.

Attorneys will argue for a longer-term injunction Thursday afternoon in Fitzwater's court.

The council heard from numerous speakers, including former U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., who called for slowing the process down and making compromises. Speakers said the city could construct monuments to historically significant black Americans, or allow private donors to take responsibility for the statue. Others accused the city of erasing history. One, John Clay, even said "removal of these monuments will not change the fact that the wrong side won."

The Rev. Gerald Britt, one of those who spoke in favor of taking down the city's Confederate monuments, said Dallas would be wise to remove the statue, which was erected during an era of segregation.

"We're not trying to rewrite history," he said. "We're trying to redeem history."

The mayor said taking down the Confederate monuments, which he had previously dubbed "dangerous totems," at a cost of $450,000 was "the right thing" to do.

"There is no question in my mind that this city will be better tomorrow with this statue down," Rawlings said Monday morning.

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Rawlings had called last month for a more deliberative process, hoping to unite the city around the issue.

He and the council appointed a task force to make recommendations about the future of the Lee statue, the Confederate War Memorial near City Hall and other symbols of the Confederacy in Dallas, such as street names.

Other council members, meanwhile, had pushed for a quick vote after protests and counterprotests around the Lee statue in Charlottesville, Va., turned deadly.

But in recent weeks, Dallas' four black council members had become increasingly adamant about the statues' removal. Three of them requested last week that a resolution on taking down the Lee statue be placed on Wednesday's agenda.

Council member Philip Kingston, whose district includes Lee Park, lauded Caraway, the mayor pro tem, and council member Tennell Atkins for pushing for a vote. He said that the council vote would set a "high moral standard" and that no more debate was necessary.

"The idea that there has been an insufficient public debate for this council to exercise moral leadership today is inaccurate," Kingston said. "There have been debates about these monuments as long as I have lived in the city of Dallas. This is not new."

But council member Sandy Greyson, who said residents of her Far North Dallas district wanted the statue to remain up, said she preferred the mayor's initial push for a public process to unite people. Hers was the lone vote against the removal. Council member Rickey Callahan, who wanted the monuments' fate put up for a voter referendum, refrained from voting, in protest of the council's decision to move forward.

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Bryce Weigand, a member of the mayor's task force, went out to the statue Wednesday afternoon. He had said in last week's initial task force meeting that the council should have postponed the vote until the task force completed its work.

He still felt that way after Wednesday's vote.

"I'm saddened about the outcome, because the procedure the mayor put in place was the right one," he said. "It was meant to unite the city."

But Caraway said he had hoped the vote would end all the rancorous debate and calm the city down. Removing the statue, he said, would be like "giving the city an Alka-Seltzer."

WHAT THEY SAID

"I believe the time is now. So I look forward to it coming down. This is a step forward for the city of Dallas. I also recognize we've got quite a bit of healing to do." — Council member Scott Griggs

"For this, my research kept bringing me back to the history of Dallas in the 1920s and the 1930s. It wasn't the history of Robert E. Lee and the Civil War. It was about what was going on during that time. ... It became clear that it was a power struggle. So when I look at that statue in context of when it was put up, just as I look at my Constitution to try and go back to the intent, the intent behind that was, in my opinion and what I've been convinced of, was oppression." — Council member Adam McGough

"I just don't believe it has a place in a public park that is supposed to be enjoyed by all." — Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates

"Some say the monuments represent heritage, not hate. That is wrong. The reality is that these monuments represent a heritage of hate. It is beyond time to remove the symbols of hate and white supremacy." -- Former council member Diane Ragsdale

"We all agree that slavery is a terrible thing. Thank God it's been over for 150 years. We also all agree that white supremacy has no place in this country and this city. ... We just want to work together. We're willing to compromise for the good of all in the name of reconciliation and unity." — Kirby White, a leader of a group that wants to keep the monuments in place

"Don't even focus on statues. We need to focus on where we're going as a nation. I served at Fort Bragg. I served at Fort Hood. Both named after Confederate generals. Any soldier that you ask who walks on those bases — it's not about who those bases are named for. It's about the country that you served." — Former U.S. Rep. Allen West

"I am grateful that the Dallas City Council took action today. I'm also mindful that there's still quite a process ahead of us." — The Rev. Michael Waters, senior pastor of Joy Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church