[3] In 1901, the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy brought a bill before the state legislature that appropriated $10,000 for a memorial to be placed over Johnston's grave.

[6] The final marble version was cut in 1904 in Seravezza, Italy, together with copies of Ney's statues of Austin and Houston intended for the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.[7]: 202–203  After being shipped to the United States, Johnston was displayed in the Texas building at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, where it won a bronze medal.

The sculpture includes the rough wooden litter and folded cloths on which the dying Johnston is meant to have been carried from the battle.

She included Gothic elements (such as pinnacles on the roofline, tracery on the gables, and crocket capitals on the corner columns) to give the site a solemn and religious quality.

Ney also incorporated Texas lone stars into the Gothic tracery to mark Johnston's grave as a commemoration of a notable Texan.