Kentucky State Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park
Like Missouri, Kentucky had a substantial number of men fighting on both the Union and Confederate sides in the American Civil War. Unlike Missouri, which dedicated one memorial to all troops that fought at Vicksburg, there are two memorials representing Kentucky soldiers: the Kentucky State Memorial commissioned by the state of Kentucky and dedicated to all troops, and the Kentucky Confederate Memorial commissioned by Confederate remembrance organizations and dedicated to Confederate soldiers.
The Kentucky State Memorial is the only state memorial within Vicksburg National Military Park that is not situated along a park road. It is located in the center of a large field between Union and Confederate avenues at the southern end of the park. These two roads form a one-way loop, starting out on Confederate Avenue and traveling in a counterclockwise direction. Unfortunately, there are no signs along the road indicating where to park if you want to visit the memorial, and being a one-way road, you can’t turn around if you miss it. As a landmark to reference, the parking lot for the memorial is the first one after the parking lot for Hovey’s Approach, Stop 15 on the Vicksburg Battlefield Tour.
From the parking lot it is a .1-mile walk along a level, dirt path to the Kentucky State Memorial. A small sign at the trailhead does identify the path as the one to take.
Path to the Kentucky State Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park
Along the way are five busts of Union and Confederate generals who commanded troops at Vicksburg. This is a bizarre sight to see, because the grass is perfectly manicured, but the memorial is out in the middle of nowhere. It’s like being in a science fiction movie where the main character stumbles upon statues of the great leaders of some lost civilization, like Lord of the Rings or Planet of the Apes, but instead of great ape leaders you have men. The busts are of Confederate Brigadier General Ben Hardin Helm; Union Brigadier General Jacob G. Lauman; Union Brigadier General William Vandever; Confederate Major General John C. Breckinridge; and Confederate Brigadier General George B. Cosby.
Busts of Union and Confederate generals near the Kentucky State Memorial at Vicksburg
Bust of General Ben Hardin Helm at Vicksburg National Military Park
The Kentucky State Memorial itself features life-size sculptures of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, both from Kentucky. The two are flanked by granite panels that list all troops, Union and Confederate, that fought at Vicksburg. The memorial was dedicated on October 20, 2001, nine years before the Kentucky Confederate Memorial. That itself is sort of bizarre since southern states have been distancing themselves from their Confederate past. Erecting a Confederate Memorial in 2010 is like spitting in the face of modern political correctness.
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis sculptures at the Kentucky State Memorial at Vicksburg
The story behind the two monuments is that in 1903, Kentucky was given three places to erect monuments at Vicksburg: one for a state memorial, one for a Union memorial, and one for a Confederate memorial. Nothing was done until the mid-1990s when the state of Kentucky began working on a state memorial. This stirred up interest in a Confederate memorial among the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and in 1999 the two groups began working on raising money for their own Confederate memorial. The State Memorial just happened to be ready first, so it’s not like the Kentucky Confederate Memorial was a spiteful response to the State Memorial by southern right-wing fanatics.
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Last updated on January 19, 2022
