62. Confederate Monument Battle Grove Cemetery, Cynthiana (Harrison County)

White marble obelisk on limestone base, 1869

Front Inscription: Erected May 27, 1869 by the Cynthiana Confederate Memorial Association in Memory of the Confederate Dead who fell in defense of Constitutional Liberty.

Rear Inscription: Their Names shall never be forgot - While Fame her Record Keeps - And Glory Guards the Hallowed Spot Where Valor Proudly Sleeps.

Believed to be the earliest Civil War monument erected in Kentucky, this obelisk was placed in the center of a circle formed by 47 Confederate graves in 1869. The inscriptions are carved into the white marble obelisk, which is detailed to appear draped by fabric at the top. It is approximately 25 feet tall. The Muldoon Monument Company of Louisville created the obelisk.

Cynthiana was a community deeply divided by the Civil War, with citizens joining both forces. The covered bridge there served as a battle site in July 1862 when John Hunt Morgan's brigade attacked during its first Kentucky raid, engaging a small number of Union troops and Home Guards. The town was again under siege in June of 1864 as Morgan's men burned houses to drive out Federal forces. General Stephen Burbridge led the counterattack.

The line of verse inscribed on the rear of the monument is from the famous poem, The Bivouac of the Dead, by Kentuckian Theodore O'Hara. Lines from this popular veterans' monument poem may be found on at least six other Kentucky Civil War monuments, in Harrodsburg, Frankfort, Mt. Sterling, Nicholasville, Perryville, and Vanceburg (see the entry for the Confederate Monument at Perryville State Historic Site, #47, for more information).

Why was this cemetery named Battle Grove?

Write a letter or diary entry describing how you felt as a member of this community during the Civil War.