Confederate Monument (Murray, Kentucky)

Confederate Monument in Murray
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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 historic statue located in the northeast corner of the Calloway County Courthouse in Murray, Kentucky. It honors the 800 citizens of the county who served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and is the only Confederate Monument in Kentucky featuring Robert E. Lee.

Establishment

During the American Civil War, Calloway County saw 800 of its citizens serve in the Confederate Army. Only 200 served in the Union Army.

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; when 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.

Gallery

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  Front view
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  Monument with courthouse in view