The Confederate Memorial Gates in Mayfield are historical monuments at the entrances to Maplewood Cemetery in

Mayfield, Kentucky Mayfield is a home rule–class city and the county seat of Graves County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 10,017 as of the 2020 United States Census. History 19th century Mayfield is in the center of the Jackson Purchase, an eig ...

. The monuments were the second monument in Mayfield established by the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

; the first being the

Confederate Memorial in Mayfield The Confederate Memorial in Mayfield is a commemorative monument and fountain located on the courthouse lawn in downtown Mayfield, Kentucky.

in downtown Mayfield. The gates were the third choice for monuments, chosen mostly due to their relatively low cost. The UDC intended them to not only be a monument to the residents of Graves County who served the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

, but also a civic improvement.

Description

The monuments are three pairs of

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ed poured

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

gateposts, six in total, each. When closed. the main pair's gates read "The United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial". The main pair have bronze plaques. The main pair of gateposts are each two feet wide and ten feet tall, with 27 feet between them. The center pair has no road between them; they are three feet wide, ten feet tall, and 285 feet away from the main gates. The third set are 330 feet away from the center gates, two feet wide and ten feet tall.Brent p.1

National Register of Historic Places

On July 17, 1997, the posts and gates were one of sixty-one different monuments to the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

in Kentucky placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky

Multiple Property Submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of Historic districts in the United States, districts, sites, buildings, struc ...

. One other monument on the list, the

Confederate Memorial in Mayfield The Confederate Memorial in Mayfield is a commemorative monument and fountain located on the courthouse lawn in downtown Mayfield, Kentucky.

, is nearby in downtown Mayfield; the only other one in Graves County is the Camp Beauregard Memorial in Water Valley. In Maplewood Cemetery are the

Wooldridge Monuments The Wooldridge Monuments are a series of historical monuments located in Maplewood Cemetery of Mayfield, Kentucky. They were built for Colonel Henry G. Wooldridge, to commemorate family members and other loved ones of his life, from 1892 until Wo ...

, also on the National Register. The only other gateway on the list is the Confederate Memorial Gateway in Hickman.

Gallery

References

{{American Civil War monuments in Kentucky Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS Gates in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Graves County, Kentucky United Daughters of the Confederacy monuments and memorials in Kentucky 1924 establishments in Kentucky Buildings and structures completed in 1924