A rough hewn shaft, about 25-feet tall, with a flat top, this monument is placed within an area containing six marble markers to the 10^th, 44^th, 7^th, 29^th, and 9^th Mississippi Infantry Regiments and several gravesites. All are enclosed by a cast iron fence. It was erected in 1884 by the brother of Confederate commander Colonel Robert Smith.

The monument honors members of a single regiment, killed along with many others, during the Battle of Munfordville.

During the Confederate offensive into Kentucky, General Braxton Bragg arrived at Munfordville, a station on the L&N Railroad, where he encountered a Union garrison, commanded by Colonel John T. Wilder, guarding the Green River bridge. Confederate General James Chalmers demanded the immediate surrender of the garrison.

Colonel Wilder held off the attack for two days, then decided to finally surrender after General Simon B. Buckner allowed him to tour enemy lines and see the hopelessness of his situation. Over 4,000 injuries and several hundred lives had been lost on both sides. It was one of the bloodiest Kentucky battles, and it resulted in the Confederate control of the bridge and the railroad in this area.