Beriah Magoffin Monument

The Beriah Magoffin Monument, in Spring Hill Cemetery of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, commemorates Beriah Magoffin, who was governor of Kentucky when the Civil War started.

Although sympathetic to secession, he sought to retain neutrality for Kentucky for the conflict, until pro-Union forces compelled him to resign from the governorship.

Its cast zinc and tribute to the "Lost Cause" is typical of monuments to the War built around 1900.

However, atypically of such monuments, Magoffin's portrait bust draped in a toga recalls Neoclassical conventions, as in Houdon's sculptural portrait of George Washington; this parallel with a heroic Roman was intended by the builder of the Beriah Magoffin Monument.

[3] Five quotes of Magoffin's were inscribed to reflect his position on Kentucky's role in the conflict: Spring Hill Cemetery, where the monument lies, was established in 1860.