Colonel Robert A. Smith Monument

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The Colonel Robert A. Smith Monument in Munfordville in Hart County , Kentucky is a war memorial to the Civil War . It was built in memory of Colonel Robert A. Smith and the 10th Mississippi Infantry . He and his unit sacrificed their lives for the Confederate States of America at the Battle of Munfordville on September 14, 1862 .

description

The monument is a 7.3 m high obelisk made of white limestone in the neo-Gothic style. It weighs 35 tons and was erected in 1884 at the behest of Smith's brother. It is believed that Cleopatra's Needle is the only major monument in the United States that was also carved from a single stone. The memorial is on private property far from a road, just east of a CSX railroad line and south of a bridge over the Green River . The monument is surrounded by a cast iron fence at a distance of 76. To the east of the column are six smaller marble monuments , each dedicated to a different Mississippi regiment - the 7th, 9th, 10th, 29th and 44th. Soldiers are buried near the memorial.

The inscription reads: South 42 'west and ninety poles distant is the place of The Sacrifice of Col. Robert A. Smith and his regiment the Tenth Mississippi on Sept. 14, 1862

history

On September 14, 1862, Colonel Robert A. Smith was ordered to capture a strategically important bridge during the Battle of Munfordville. After three hours of fighting, forty soldiers on the Confederate side were killed and 211 were wounded. Smith himself was fatally wounded and died in great pain a few days later. His bereaved relatives long believed that Smith received the attack order from his superior James R. Chalmers , who wanted to prevent Smith from receiving a promotion; Chalmers had started the attack without orders from his superiors. Smith was buried in Jackson .

When Smith's brother James emigrated to the United States from Bonnybridge near Glasgow in Scotland in 1886, he visited the place where his brother had met his death. James decided to erect a memorial in honor of his brother. He bought the property and spent $ four thousand on the memorial. It was built by Oman & Stewart of Nashville , Tennessee , with the limestone block quarried at Bowling Green . James Smith ran a stove and oven factory, Smith & Wellstood, in Bonnybridge with Stephen Wellstood.

The memorial was one of 61 Kentucky Civil War memorials listed as a Multiple Property Submission on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997 .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c Brent, Joseph, Colonel Robert A. Smith Monument NRHP Nomination Form (1997), p. 1
  2. ↑ a b c Col. Robert A. Smith Monument Battleforthebridge.org
  3. ^ Harrison, Lowell, The Civil War in Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, 1975) p.44
  4. ↑ 10th Mississippi Infantry ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Mississippi Sons of Confederate Veterans  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mississippiscv.org

Web links

Coordinates: 37 ° 15 ′ 27 ″  N , 85 ° 53 ′ 46 ″  W.