The Confederate Memorial in Forest Park
Tour Stop
Directions: The Confederate Memorial [ Waypoint = N38 38.669 W90 16.771 ] is located in the north central part of Forest Park just east of the Missouri History Museum on Confederate Drive.
- Continue heading east on Lagoon Drive.
- After about 0.6 miles, Lagoon Drive becomes Grand Drive as you pass the Missouri History Museum.
- After about another 0.3 miles, turn left (north) onto Cricket Drive.
- Take the first right onto Confederate Drive.
- The memorial is just ahead on the right.
Description: The design of this memorial was sponsored by the Ladies' Confederate Monument Association. The association's commission required that the monument should have “no figure of a Confederate soldier, or object of modern warfare.” The monument is 32 feet tall and was designed by George Julian Zolnay. The monument was completed and dedicated on December 5, 1914. [25]
The inscription on the front of the monument reads:
Erected in the memory of the soldiers and sailors of the Confederate States by the United Daughters of the Confederacy of Saint Louis.
There are two inscriptions on the the back of the monument. The first inscription was written by a St. Louis write Robert Catlett Cave who had served as a Confederate soldier from Virginia. It reads are follows:
To the Memory of the Soldiers and Sailors of the Southern Confederacy.
Who fought to uphold the right declared by the pen of Jefferson and achieved by the sword of Washington. With sublime self sacrifice they battled to preserve the independence of the states which was won from Great Britain, and to perpetuate the constitutional government which was established by the fathers.
Actuated by the purest patriotism they performed deeds of prowess such as thrilled the heart of mankind with admiration. Full in the front of war they stood and displayed a courage so superb that they gave a new and brighter luster to the annals of valor. History contains no chronicle more illustrious than the story of their achievements; and although, worn out by ceaseless conflict and overwhelmed by numbers, they were finally forced to yield, their glory, on brightest pages penned by poets and by sages shall go sounding down the ages.
Below this there is an inscription quoting Robert E. Lee, reading as follows:
We had sacred principles to maintain and rights to defend for which we were duty bound to do our best, even if we perished in the endeavor.