Confederate Monument (Murray, Kentucky) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Confederate Monument in Murray
|
|
 |
|
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| Location | Jct. of KY 94 and Ky 121, Murray, Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Built | 1917 |
| Architect | Mcneil Marble Co., Marietta, GA |
| MPS | Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 97000711 |
| Added to NRHP | July 17, 1997 |
The Confederate Monument in Murray is a statue located in the northeast corner of the Calloway County Courthouse in Murray, Kentucky. It commemorates the 800 citizens of the county who served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and is one of several Confederate monuments in Kentucky featuring Robert E. Lee. There is another one in Bardstown KY. Despite recent controversy, the Calloway County Fiscal Court voted to keep the statue on its grounds in July 2020.
Contents
Establishment
During the American Civil War, Calloway County saw about 800 of its citizens serve in the Confederate Army. 200 plus served in the Union Army. At the time of the Civil War 1,500 enslaved people were living in Calloway County making up about 15% of the county's population at the time.
The monument was funded after a three-year fund raising drive by the J. N. Williams Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (U.D.C.) in 1917, whose chairman died during that period; her name was added to the monument in tribute. The U.D.C. paid $2,500 to Marietta, Georgia's McNeel Monument Company for the structure.
Structure
The 16.5-foot-tall (5.0 m) monument has three parts. The bottom is a porcelain drinking fountain; It was a working fountain, a step pedal was used to obtain water. In its time, was the most elaborate and modern of the Civil War fountain monuments: the other three fountains are the Confederate Memorial in Mayfield, Confederate Memorial Fountain in Hopkinsville, and the Confederate Monument of Cadiz.
Four 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) Doric columns support a granite canopy. Inside the canopy is an ornate iron light fixture with four incandescent bulbs to light the fountain. On top are four marble balls and a 5.5-foot-tall (1.7 m) marble statue of Lee, making it the only monument in Kentucky that heavily features Robert E. Lee; the only other monument in Kentucky with a likeness of Lee is Bardstown, Kentucky's Confederate Monument of Bardstown which has only a small relief portrait of Lee below the large statue of a Confederate soldier.
On July 17, 1997, the Confederate Monument in Murray was one of sixty-one different monuments related to the Civil War in Kentucky placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission.
In media
Several films were made about the community effort to remove the Confederate Monument.
- "Ghosts of a Lost Cause" sponsored by the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange
- "Friendliest Small Town in America" sponsored by the Pulitzer Center
Gallery
-
Front view
-
Monument with courthouse in view
