On August 7, 1864, General Stephen Gano Burbridge was appointed commander of the Military District of Kentucky. Although the Union officer made many controversial decisions before he was removed from his command in February 1865, his infamous Order No. 59 made him Public Enemy #1 for Kentucky Confederates and earned him the epithet "Butcher" Burbridge. In an effort to punish the Confederacy for their repeated guerrilla activities, the order retaliated for every Union death with the execution of four guerrilla prisoners. Under this order, more than 50 executions took place.

Martyrs Monument
Jeffersontown City Cemetery (Jefferson County)

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.

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.

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.

Confederate Soldiers Martyrs Monument
Eminence Cemetery (Henry County)

The three men honored by this monument were executed in 1864 as a result of Order No. 59, and the powerful inscription on the obelisk is testament to the Confederate outrage with Burbridge.

Inscription: Three CSA Soldiers who were shot at Pleasureville by order of Gen. Burbridge in pretense of retaliation of two Negras that were killed near Port Royal Sleep on ye braves for you have got our last breath. We would not have thee buried on a lot with him who has caused thy death William Tighe aged 30 years, R. W. Yates aged 30 years, William Datbor aged 20 years.

Other monuments to Burbridge's victims may be found at the St. Alphonsus Catholic Church Cemetery in Daviess County and the Midway City Cemetery in Woodford County.

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