Unlike most Confederate monuments in Kentucky, it represents grief rather than Southern patriotism.

The cross was made in Italy, with the pedestal supplied by Louisville's Muldoon Monument Company.

It was called "probably the most perfect thing of its kind in the South" by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.

[4] It is believed that the memorial might have been inspired by a poem written by Abram Joseph Ryan, a Confederate chaplain: Take that banner down!

'tis tattered; Broken is its staff and shattered, And the valiant hosts are scattered Over whom it floated high.