Its commission was first suggested by Sumner Archibald Cunningham, the founding editor of Confederate Veteran.

[1] The western plaque includes lines from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

[1] Major Eugene C. Lewis introduced Governor Malcolm R. Patterson, who gave a speech praising Davis.

[1] It was followed by a prayer by Reverend James Hugh McNeilly of Glen Leven Presbyterian Church.

[1] On August 28, 2017, in the wake of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, protesters covered the statue, but the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Nashville Fire Department uncovered it half an hour later.