From Missouri - A Guide to the "Show Me" State - St. Louis section:
The CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL, a bronze group by George Zolnay,
represents a Southern family sending its only adult son to battle.
The Ladies' Confederate Monument Association commissioned this monument which
was dedicated December 5, 1914. The monument was to have "no figure of a
Confederate soldier, or object of modern warfare." The monument has a low
relieve carving of an allegorical figure, the "Angel of the Spirit of the
Confederacy" above a bronze high relieve of life-size figures of a southern
family sending a young man off to war. The monument stands 23 feet tall and was
designed by George Julian Zolnay.
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."
On the the back of the monument there are two inscriptions. The first long
inscription was written by a St. Louis minister Robert Catlett Cave who had
served as a Confederate soldier from Virginia. It reads as 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."