Confederate Monument in Murray

The Confederate Monument in Murray is a historic statue located in the northeast corner of the Calloway County Courthouse in Murray, Kentucky.

The fountain was funded after three years by the J. N. Williams Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1917, whose chairman died during that period; her name was placed upon the monument in tribute. The U.D.C. paid $2,500 to Marietta, Georgia's McNeel Monument Company for the monument.

The 16.5 ft monument has three parts. The bottom is a porcelain drinking fountain; when it was a working fountain, a step pedal was used to obtain water. It was by far the most elaborate and modern of the Civil War fountain monuments. (The other three fountains are the Confederate Memorial in Mayfield, Confederate Memorial Fountain in Hopkinsville, and the Confederate Monument of Cadiz.) Four 6 ft Doric columns support a granite canopy. Inside the canopy is an ornate iron light fixture with four incandescent bulbs to light the fountain. On top are four marble balls and a 5.5 ft marble statue of Robert E. Lee, making it the only monument in Kentucky that heavily features Robert E. Lee; the only other monument in Kentucky with a likeness of Lee is Bardstown, Kentucky's Confederate Monument of Bardstown which has only a small relief portrait of Lee below the large statue of a Confederate soldier.

During the war, Murray/Calloway County saw 800 of its citizens serve in the Confederate Army, as opposed to 200 who served in the Union Army.

On July 17, 1997, the Confederate Monument in Murray was one of sixty-one different monuments related to the Civil War in Kentucky placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission.