Civil War in Kentucky


31. Confederate Monument
St. Joseph's Cemetery, Bardstown (Nelson County)
Zinc figure and ornamented pedestal on limestone base, 1903

Inscriptions: Lord God of hosts, Be with us yet; Lest we forget, Lest we forget.
Marble tells not of their valor's worth, Nameless, they rest in quiet earth.
We care not whence they came, Dear is their lifeless clay; Whether unknown, or known to fame, their cause and country still the same, they died and wore the gray.

This fifteen-foot-tall monument in St. Joseph's Cemetery honors 67 Confederate soldiers buried around it. It was erected in 1903 by the J. Crepps Wickliffe Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the state's most active monument-raising organization. The figure of a Confederate soldier holding a rifle with both hands in front of him rests atop a multi-sectioned pedestal. Directly beneath the figure is a relief portrait of the top-ranking Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Although most figures on Kentucky's Civil War monuments are generic or have specific local significance, Lee's likeness does appear in one other place: he is the subject of the monument on the Calloway County Courthouse Square. Reliefs of crossed cannons, swords, and flags appear on the other sides of the pedestal.

Questions/Activities:

Research the organization, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, to learn of its history and purpose. Is the organization still active today? Where are chapters located? What does it's membership do today?

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