They Died In Defense Of Constitutional Liberties

From Confederate Digest:

Wednesday, June 30, 2010


They Died in Defense of Constitutional Liberty

Kentucky's First Confederate Memorial, Cynthiana, Kentucky





Battle Grove Cemetery in Cynthiana, Kentucky was dedicated November 4, 1868 to honor those who fell there June 12, 1864 during the second Battle of Cynthiana. The battle ensued when Union troops invaded Kentucky during the War to prevent Southern Independence (1861-1865).





In the following spring, on May 27, 1869, Battle Grove Cemetery became the site of the first of dozens of Confederate memorials in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and it is widely believed to be the second oldest Confederate monument in the nation.





The memorial consists of a granite shaft, beside which flys the First National Flag of the Confederacy. Surrounding the shaft and flag is a circle of headstones of Confederate dead, most of them unknown. And why did these brave men die? The monument makes the answer clear with the inscription: They died in defense of Constitutional Liberty.





In the spirit of American Revolution of 1776, the Confederates made the ultimate sacrifice in a war for freedom from an out of control federal government. The North, under the despotic dictatorship of Abraham Lincoln, trampled the Constitution in a grab for money and centralized governmental control over the previously sovereign states.





Chiseled in stone on front of the monument are these words:





ERECTED

MAY 27, 1869

BY THE

CYNTHIANA CONFEDERATE

MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

IN MEMORY OF

THE CONFEDERATE DEAD WHO

FELL IN DEFENSE OF

CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY





The other side of the monument contains this verse:





THEIR NAMES SHALL NEVER BE FORGOT

WHILE FAME THEIR RECORD KEEPS.

AND GLORY GUARDS THE HALLOW'D SPOT

WHERE VALOR PROUDLY SLEEPS.









Posted by J. Stephen Conn at 10:28 AM