Front Inscription: Wilson P. Lilly, Rev. Sherwood Hatley Confederate soldiers October 25, 1864 Robbed of the glory of death on the field of battle by Stephen G. Burbridge who ordered them shot without cause or trial erected to the memory of four martyrs by the Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter U.D.C. of Louisville, Ky. June 11, 1904 Martyrs.
Rear Inscription:Wilson P. Lilly, Sherwood Hatley, Lindsay Duke Buckner, M. Blincoe - Being dead yet speaketh.
This marker bears some resemblance to the obelisk in Eminence Cemetery, for both honor groups of Confederates who were executed under Order No. 59. Both monuments mention the author of the infamous retaliation order, Stephen Burbridge, by name.
Although this headstone inscription charges that they were "shot without cause or trial" and calls them martyrs, it stops short of conveying the sense of injustice that the poetic and emotional words of the Eminence marker convey.
The group execution was the only significant Civil War event in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. On October 25, 1864, the four men named on the monument were shot while confined as guerrilla prisoners just outside of Jeffersontown. Their bodies were dumped in a ditch. The executions were carried out in retribution for the murder of a Union soldier on Bardstown Pike.
The wording here also attests to the patriotic valor of soldiers during this time in our history, by grieving the fact that the men had been "robbed of the glory of death on the field of battle." A similar sentiment is conveyed in other monuments, particularly the Camp Beauregard Monument (#3) that honors the 1,000 Union men who died in an epidemic there, "denied the glory of heroic service in battle," at the start of the War.
Questions/Activities:
Look at the Camp Beauregard monument, too (#3). What does it mean to be "robbed of" or "denied" the glory of death in battle?
Write a definition of the word "martyr." Discuss other martyrs in history or literature.
