The Confederate Martyrs Monument at the Jeffersontown City Cemetery in Jeffersontown, Kentucky marks where four Confederate soldiers were executed "without cause or trial", due to Order #59, the creation of Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, known as "Butcher Burbridge" in Kentucky, which called for the execution of four Confederate prisoners for every unarmed Union citizen killed. The total number of executions performed as a result of this order was fifty. The four soldiers commemorated on the stone were Wilson P. Lilly, Rev. Sherwood Hatley, Lindsay Duke Buckner and M. Blincoe.
The execution of the four Confederate soldiers was the only significant event of the American Civil War in Jeffersontown. It was done in retaliation of a fallen Union soldier on Bardstown Pike. The soldiers were shot while confined, and their bodies were dumped in a ditch until their interment here.
WILSON P. LILLY
REV. SHERWOOD HATLEY
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
OCTOBER 25, 1864
ROBBED OF THE GLORY OF DEATH ON THE FIELD
OF BATTLE BY STEPHEN G. BURBRIDGE WHO
ORDERED THEM SHOT WITHOUT CAUSE OR TRIAL
ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE FOUR MARTYRS BY THE ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON CHAPTER D.O.C. OF LOUISVILLE, KY. JUNE 11, 1904
MARTYRS
While on the back it reads:
WILSON P. LILLY.
SHERWOOD HATLEY.
LINDSAY DUKE BUCKNER.
M. BLINCOE.
BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH.
