Their execution was under Order 59, created by Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, known as "Butcher Burbridge" in Kentucky, which called for the execution of four Confederate prisoners for every unarmed Union citizen killed.

The execution of the four Confederate soldiers was the only significant event of the American Civil War in Jeffersontown.

It was done in retaliation for the extrajudicial murder of a Union soldier on Bardstown Pike, as was common during the Civil War.

[1] The monument was erected by the Albert Sidney Johnston chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy (D.O.C).

Sherwood Hatley Confederate soldiers October 25, 1864 Robbed of the glory of death on the field of battle by Stephen G. Burbridge who ordered them shot without cause or trial Erected to the memory of the four martyrs by the Albert Sidney Johnston chapter D.O.C.