"Confederate Monument, Louisville, KY" Post card mailed 1902

The corner-stone of the Confederate Monument was laid yesterday afternoon at Third and Shipp streets, in the presence of a large crowd. The monument will be dedicated June 29, which will bring this noble work of the Women’s Confederate Monument Association to an end.

The ceremonies began at 3 o’clock. They attracted a large audience, mostly of whom were decorated with streamers of red and white, the colors of the Confederacy.

It was a matter of common comment that the site of the monument, corner of Third and Shipp avenues, could not have been better selected. The pavements bend around the circular site, and the street continues into the grand boulevard. At the threshold of the principal driveway, it will be an imposing ornament.

The exercises were begun with a hymn by the Confederate choir, “The Call of the Roll on High,” in which the deep men’s voices prayed for the peaceful sleep of those who perished for the lost cause. In a prayer Dr. Adolph A. Moses called upon Him, “whose decrees shall not pass away, whose creations shall not perish.” He declared that man knows only duty and he should fight and die for duty as he sees it, and it is measured not by success, but by the bravery shown in defending duty. Wherefore, men revere the memories of those who fought for the wining cause and for the lost cause; the memories of Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. He thanked God that the day has come when both sides have cemented themselves inseparably with friendship and love, and besought God that the monument may inspire patriotism and the disposition to defend the country.

Maj. Leathers then introduced the Rev. E. L. Powell, who delivered the principal address of the occasion. Dr. Powell spoke as follows:

We are met today to lay the corner-stone of a monument that shall speak to all who may look upon it of our appreciation of brave men and daring deeds. Our age may be materialistic, but so long as love lives to tell its story and sing its song so long as human hearts are sensitive and responsive to “greatness” and heroism, there will not be wanting that poetry of sentiment which expresses itself in speech and stone and which is alike an honor to our humanity and inspiration of high and holy thoughts. In these inaugural ceremonies, let it not be forgotten to the love and loyalty of woman, guided and intensified by the sacred memory of “the olden, golden glory of the days gone by,” we owe the inception and present progress of this beautiful and worthy memorial. Into this growing column will go the love and toil, the tender prayers, the faithful service, the generous contributions of a womanhood whose own nobility is proven in this recognition and appreciation of nobility in others. All praise to the women of the Confederate Monument Association! We greet you in the name of the old soldiers, whose dead comrades you honor, and in the names of the younger generation who have been thrilled by the recital of the story which your monument will tell in silent, but eloquent language. We congratulate you that your dream has been realized and that your heart’s desire has been realized, and that your patient waiting has at last been rewarded. Let us now turn our thought to the meaning of the monument when it shall stand before us in its completed beauty. Its message is simple; its language is plain, it represents our recognition and appreciation of the splendid services rendered by a splendid soldiery in fighting and dying for a cause forever shrined in our hearts by all the hallowed associations of sacrifice, and all the sweet thoughts of the long ago. It says to all men that we are unwilling to forget that highest proof of genuine devotion -- vicarious self-sacrifice. “Greater love hath no man than this -- that he lay down his life for his friends.” It is a message to the living that our dead, who fell on the field of honor, “When the distant battle flashed and rung,” shall now be, “Wept for, honored, known, and like a warrior overthrown, whose eyes are dim with glorious tears. When soiled with noble dust, he hears his country’s war-song thrill his ears.”

We mean to say to those silent warriors, who, though dead, still alive in the land of the ‘great departed,” that they are not forgotten nor ever can be so long as memory holds her place among the faculties of the soul.

We are not commemorating the fabled deeds of demi-gods. We are not rearing a monument to abstract virtues. We are not honoring the mock tolls and tears and heroism of dramatic characters, whose swords clash for the entertainment of the gathered crowd, and the thunder of whose artillery is only the rumbling of cart wheels. Ay! We would guard against this trick of memory which blunts and dulls our emotions, leaving us to think of our brave men as having played an unreal part in an unreal tragedy.

“As if the soldier died without a wound.
As though the wretch who fell in battle doing bloody deeds
Passed off to heaven translated and not killed
No wife to pine for him; no God to judge him.”

No, we are thinking of men today, who loved and hoped and feared; who had homes, with loving wives and happy children -- whose nerves were as sensitive to pain as our own, and yet who gave their breasts to the bullets and their blood to water the soil of the land, that they might show to all the world the value they placed on conscience, self respect, and duty. Not to remember them would be to brand ourselves with infamy -- to show ourselves wanting in the tenderest and purest feelings which belong to the human heart.

This monument will speak to us as well of untitled greatness. It will commemorate the deeds of the common soldier. Others have honored the man “of the word and pen,” we honor today the “the man with the musket.” I can almost envy him who was of this glorious company of untitled men and who, out of his own experience, can say of his “old comrade:”

“I knew him! By all that is noble, I knew. This common place hero I name!
I’ve camped with him, marched with him, fought with him too.
In the whirl of the fierce battle flame;
Laughed with him, cried with him, taken a part of his canteen and blanket, and known that the throb of this chivalrous boy’s heart
Was an answering stroke of my own.”

The common soldier is a revelation of the dignity and grandeur of ordinary human nature. He speaks to us of the capabilities of a simple humanity that knows little of the adornments and refinements of society, but is at home in the realm of love and duty. He may not always have been the favorite in a drawing room, but the battlefield knew his sturdy tread and drank his warm blood as eagerly as that of the greatest Captain. “He could dare for a grand cause to suffer, resist, if need be to die.” His courage was his certificate of nobility. All honor to “the boys in the trenches.”

“Their fame on brightest pages. Penned by poets and by songs,
Shall go sounding down the ages.”

Then again, this monument will declare the glory of self sacrifice on every field of earnest endeavor. It will be a silent exhortation to this generation to exemplify in the every day conflict of life those virtues which brave men conspicuously illustrated on the more prominent theater of war. No longer does the clarion of battle summon us to the bloody fray, but the call of duty is an eternal invitation to be “heroes in the strife” for the right against the wrong. The war-drum throbs no longer. the battle flag is furled. Charging battalions no longer shake the solid earth with their advancing tread and the deafening roar of their artillery. “The confused noise and garments rolled in blood” is now only a memory of the heroic days. We thank God that peace is our heritage -- that the blue sky looks down upon a united and happy people, but we would not forget that there are battles being waged today that “do not scar the world’s forehead” in which every true man must show himself to be a warrior worthy the companionship of our immortal dead. In these battles where right living and right thinking are our weapons -- waged in the interest of purer laws, better customs, and a higher type of Christian civilization -- there is opportunity for manifestation of every martial virtue and the noblest traits of soldierly character. The day of heroism is not past.

“New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth.
Lo! before us gleam her camp-fires; we ourselves must pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the future’s portal, but the past’s blood-rusted key.”

The message of this monument to us will be a summons to heroic living in our own age and generation. These departed heroes, whom we love to honor, will speak to us in unmistakable accents: Be true to the right as you see it. Dare to be loyal to your convictions. Carry the spirit of self-sacrifice into “the common deeds of the common day.” And when death shall come, be found fighting on the field of service, which is always and everywhere the field of honor -- the true field of the cloth of gold.

But this is no time for a lengthy oration. These few words may be pardoned, with one closing thought. The monument which will presently mark this beautiful site will represent no spirit of rebellion or defiance. Its countenance will not frown on any passer-by, nor will its brow be clothed with wrath. The lightning which may play about its summit will only reveal its beauty, and the thunder which may break over its head will not be the precursor of an advancing army. Children will play about its base and happy families, taking their evening drive, will have awakened tender thoughts of brave men who have long since gone to their reward, as they look upon its patient face:

“Peace has come.
God give his blessing on the fact and on the name:
The South speaks no invective,
And she writes no word of blame:
But we call all men to witness
That we stand up without shame.”

“Tell the Boys I’m Coming Soon,” was a hymn written for the occasion and its singing by the Confederate choir brought out its beauty. Its words were of the rugged sentiments of the soldiers.

Then came the Mayor’s address. Mr. Tyler said it is to be hoped that the erection of the monument presages the erection of other monuments. Hitherto, he said, the city has been unadorned with any such shafts to honor the names of the great men Kentucky had produced. The city had co-operated in the erection of the Confederate monument by granting the women the plot of ground on which the shaft will stand, and that shaft will be an unbroken picture of all that may be great on the Confederate side of the war. The women, he said, should be congratulated for their lofty purpose and zeal, and he saw in the dedication of the monument a dedication to Kentucky women’s pride in patriotism.

Upon conclusion of Mr. Tyler’s remarks Maj. Leathers announced that the aim of the noble women had been fulfilled, and called upon Mrs. Susan Hepburn to lay the corner stone. He incidentally announced that the monument proper would be completed and that it would be dedicated on Saturday, June 29.

The copper box containing a number of significant articles was then deposited in a niche and a block of stone laid upon it. Besides those articles enumerated in yesterday’s Courier Journal there were also placed in the copper box a historical constitution of the Confederate Association of Kentucky, together with a list of members; a picture and sketch of the late Dr.John A. Broadus in the Baptist Basket, and a gold Daniel Boone souvenir spoon.

The entire audience then joined in the singing of “America,” followed by a brief benediction, pronounced by the Rev. Dr. E. T. Perkins.

From the monument site the greater part of the audience repaired to Cave Hill to attend the decoration of Confederate graves.

DECORATED THE GRAVES

About Five Thousand People at Cave Hill Yesterday Afternoon.

There were about 5,000 people at the Confederate grave decoration in Cave Hill Cemetery yesterday at 5 p.m. The services were, as usual, simple and impressive. Capt. John H. Leathers, Vice President of the Confederate Association of Kentucky, had charge. The exercises began with “The Volunteer’s Grave,” a solo and chorus. Prof. J. M. Ragsdale sand the solo and Capt. John H. Weller, with the Confederate choir, sand the chorus. The Rev. Dr. G. B. Overton, of the Orphan Brigade, led in prayer. He referred to the Confederate soldier’s deeds of valor on more than 2,000 battlefields, and that in times of peace throughout the great republic they had proven to be the best citizens.

As the Rev. Dr. Overton completed he repeated the Lord’s Prayer in which worship he was joined by the vast multitude. The choir sang “Rest, Comrades, Rest.”

Maj. W. J. Davis read in splendid tone the following poem by the noted authoress, “Christian Reid” (Miss Fannie Fisher, whose father, Col Fisher, fell at the head of his regiment on a Virginia battlefield). Maj. Davis said, “This poem was sent to me in 1872 by its gifted author. Its theme rests on an incident unhappily too frequently occurring in the history of young women of the South during the War Between the States:

The reading ended in gentle applause that revealed deep feeling. The choir sang “Tell the Boys I’m Coming Soon,” following which the graves were covered with flowers by children and young ladies, led by Mrs. J. B. Castleman and Mrs. B. W. Duke. One grave, that of General Alpheus Baker, was richly decorated with beautiful flowers by Judge R. H. Thompson.

Among the liberal contributors of flowers were Mrs. Joseph Anderson, American Rose Company, Miss Sallie J. Durrett, Miss Isabel Osborne, Miss Kate H. Murray, of Jeffersonville, Ind.; Miss Minerva Wallis, Miss Mary A. Sterratt, Mrs. H. H. Thompson, Mrs. John C. Lewis, Mrs. Kate Truman, Mrs. George Kellum, Mrs. Josie Kennedy, Mrs. J. H. McKown, Mrs. John W. Green, Mrs. J. R. Butler, Mrs. Wm. Harrison, Mrs. Ross, Mrs. J. W. Knadler, Mrs. Wm .M. Marriner.

A great many baskets of flowers had no cards and the donors were unknown. Standing at the end of the grave plats and looking down the long rows, a spectacle of singular beauty was to be seen. The deep green color of the grass, studded by the white stones and striped with the red and other bright colored flowers made a perfect floral panorama.

Treasurer Sam Murrell had a large supply of red, white, and red badges for the little girls distributing the flowers, but the supply was soon exhausted as every woman wanted one and every father wanted one or two to carry home to his children.