Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown

Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown
Location Jeffersontown, Kentucky
Coordinates 38°11′24.71″N 85°34′8.36″W / 38.1901972°N 85.5689889°WCoordinates: 38°11′24.71″N 85°34′8.36″W / 38.1901972°N 85.5689889°W
Built 1904
Architectural style No Style Listed
Governing body Local
MPS Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS
NRHP Reference # 97000691 [1]
Added to NRHP July 17, 1997

The Confederate Martyrs Monument at the Jeffersontown City Cemetery in Jeffersontown, Kentucky marks where four Confederate soldiers were executed "without cause or trial", due to Order #59, the creation of Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, known as "Butcher Burbridge" in Kentucky, which called for the execution of four Confederate prisoners for every unarmed Union citizen killed. The total number of executions performed as a result of this order was fifty. The four soldiers commemorated on the stone were Wilson P. Lilly, Rev. Sherwood Hatley, Lindsay Duke Buckner and M. Blincoe.

The execution of the four Confederate soldiers was the only significant event of the American Civil War in Jeffersontown. It was done in retaliation for the death of a Union soldier on Bardstown Pike. The soldiers were shot while confined, and their bodies were dumped in a ditch until their interment here.

The monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997, the same day as the Louisville Confederate Monument and the Union Monument in Louisville. The Confederate Soldiers Martyrs Monument in Eminence, Kentucky, that was also established to honor victims of Order 59, was also established on the same day. In total, sixty-one different memorials to the Civil War in Kentucky were placed on the National Register that day.

Inscriptions

The inscription on the front reads:

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 THE FOUR MARTYRS BY THE
ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON CHAPTER
D.O.C. OF LOUISVILLE, KY. JUNE 11, 1904
MARTYRS

While on the back it reads:

WILSON P. LILLY.
SHERWOOD HATLEY.
LINDSAY DUKE BUCKNER.
M. BLINCOE.
BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.

See also