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 Confederate Memorial State Historic Site - near Higginsville, MO Posted by:  YoSam.
N 39° 05.687 W 093° 43.128
15S E 437840 N 4327540
Originally a soldiers home and cemetery for Confederate Veterans.
Waymark Code: WM117K1
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 09/01/2019
Views: 2
County of site: Lafayette County
Location: Jct. MO-213, busi. MO-13, & MO-20, 2 miles N. of Higginsville
Founded as a Home: 1889
Home Officially Closed: May 8, 1950
Became a State Historic Site: Middle 1950s
Phone: 660-584-2853
Site Hours: Sunrise to sunset, daily
LOCATION: Lafayette County
NUMBER OF ACRES: 135.22
NUMBER OF FULL-TIME STAFF: 2.5
NUMBER OF PART-TIME STAFF: 10
2017 ATTENDANCE:* 181,005
NUMBER OF STRUCTURES: 11
MILES OF ROADWAYS: 2.32
NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL TOURS GIVEN:* 6,654
NUMBER OF PROGRAMS PRESENTED:* 6
"Step on to the peaceful grounds of Confederate Memorial State Historic Site and experience where the last voices of the “Lost Cause” lingered. The site was once home to the Confederate Soldiers Home of Missouri, which provided comfort and refuge to 1,600 Civil War veterans and their families for nearly 60 years. Today, visitors can visit the restored chapel and the Confederate cemetery, as well as three other historic buildings. Visitors will learn about the Confederate Home and the role it played in post-Civil War Missouri. The site’s 135 acres include numerous lakes to fish in as well as walking trails and places to picnic." ~ Missouri State Parks
Park Type: Day Use Park
Activities:
Fishing, playgrounds, hiking, weddings, picnicking, bird watching
Park Fees:
There is a $200 fee charged for weddings at the chapel.
Background:
"In 1889, almost 25 years after the Civil War ended, a group of Missouri Confederate veterans gathered in Higginsville for their annual reunion. While meeting to remember old times and past glories, these men recognized the need to establish a haven for their less fortunate comrades. Across the state, veterans and interested parties joined forces and founded the Confederate Home Association. Within a year, the association raised enough money to purchase 365 acres of prime farmland just north of Higginsville. Newly formed Southern patriotic women's organizations, especially the Daughters f the Confederacy, began earnestly seeking funds for the construction and outfitting of dwellings on the site. In April 1891, Julius Bamberg became the first veteran admitted to the Confederate Soldiers Home of Missouri. He was the first of more than 1,600 veterans and their wives, children and widows who sought shelter at the home over the next 59 years.
"Needy and incapacitated former soldiers and sailors from across the South resided at the home after proving their service record, financial need and Missouri residency. Most had been infantry, artillery and cavalry privates, but other served as officers, sharpshooters, partisan guerrillas, musicians, paid conscription substitutes, naval personnel on the first ironclads, and even spies. They participated in every theater of war and in every major battle, from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter to the Confederate surrender at Appromattox. Veterans from the border states and all but one of the Confederate states lived and died at the home. Unlike other Southern veterans institutions, Missouri's home admitted women and children from the beginning.
"By the mid-1890s, the Confederate home faced a serious financial crisis. Insufficient funding, due in part to a nationwide depression, forced the home's board to appeal to the state for assistance. The state took over financial control of the home in 1897, but a board of trustees made up of Confederate veterans continued to oversee its operation." ~ Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Date Established?: 1952
Link to Park: [Web Link]
Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed
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