Confederate Monument in Frankfort

The Confederate Monument in Frankfort is placed within a circle of the graves of 68 Confederate soldiers in Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky.[2] The statue depicts a life size Confederate soldier standing ready, carved from white Carrara marble and standing atop a granite pedestal on a limestone base.[1] A flagpole displays the first flag of the Confederacy with seven stars.[3] The monument was erected by Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1892.[4]

Confederate Monument in Frankfort
Photo taken in 2020
LocationFrankfort, Kentucky
Built1892
MPSCivil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS
NRHP reference No.97000702[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 17, 1997

In 1997, the monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of 60 Civil War monuments in Kentucky. Frankfort has one other, the Colored Soldiers Monument which is located in Green Hill Cemetery.[5]

Inscriptions

The granite pedestal has an inscription on each of its four sides; the fourth being part of the last stanza of the Bivouac of the Dead,[6] written by Theodore O'Hara, who is also buried in Frankfort Cemetery.[7]

Face:

"Our Confederate Dead
1861–1865
They sleep—what need to question now
if they were right or wrong:
They know ere this whose cause was
just in God the Father's sight
They wield no warlike weapons now
return no foeman's thrust
Who but a coward would revile
an honored soldier's dust."[8]

East side:

"To every man upon this earth death comes soon or late, and how can man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his father, and the temple of his God."[8]

Reverse:

"Greater love hath no man than
this that a man lay down his
life for his friends."[4]

West side:

"The marble minstrels voiceful tone
In deathless songs shall tell
When many a vanished age hath flown
The story, how ye fell;
Nor wreak, nor change, nor winter blight,
Nor time's remoreseless doom
Shall dim one ray of holy light
That gilds your glorious tomb."[4]

Photos of the Confederate Monument in Frankfort
  • Photo published in 1898
  • Photo taken in 2020
  • The statue
  • Inscription on face

References
  1. "National Register Information System – (#97000702)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "National Register Information System – (#74000872)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  3. Veno, Chanda (July 9, 2020). "You Asked: Tell me more about the Confederate soldier area at Frankfort Cemetery". The State Journal.
  4. Johnson, Lewis Franklin (1921). "History of the Frankfort Cemetery". Internet Archive. Roberts Printing Co.
  5. Joseph E. Brent (January 8, 1997). "National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission: Civil War Monuments in Kentucky, 1865-1935" (pdf). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "Read the Poem - BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD". National Cemetery Administration. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  7. "Civil War in Kentucky". trailsrus.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-18. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  8. Morton, Jennie C (1909). "HISTORY OF THE FRANKFORT CEMETERY (From the Streets of the Capital.)". Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society. 7 (19): 23–34 – via JSTOR.
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