Confederate Memorial - Forest Park - St. Louis, MO - American Civil War Monuments and Memorials on Waymarking.com

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."

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 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."

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