White marble obelisk on limestone base, circa 1870
Inscription (Front/North): Union County mourns the loss of: (list of 50 names)
Inscription (East): (list of seven names)
Inscription (West): Who gave their lives to a cause they deem just (list of seven names)
Inscription (South): In Memory of the Confederate Dead
This obelisk, engraved with the names of 64 Confederate soldiers lost from Union County, was erected circa 1870.
Union County was largely pro-Confederate, with citizens there holding over 2,000 slaves according to the 1860 Census, although it was not an area of great war activity. Confederate Colonel Nathan B. Forrest and his troops were the first to have a presence in the county, late in 1861. Federal forces landed at Caseyville and attempted to charge all citizens there with treason in July 1862, and a few weeks later, engaged in a skirmish at Morganfield.
