This one-of-a-kind Union monument
honors 107 soldiers who died for cause

Where is the only Union monument honoring Federal soldiers located south of the Mason-Dixon Line that is not in a cemetery funded by public subscription?

The answer is Vanceburg, the tiny Lewis County community on the shores of the Ohio River.

Built in 1884 by the citizens of Lewis County, the memorial is in an area that was a Union stronghold during the war. Made of limestone, the monument is 34-feet tall with a base measuring five feet in height and seven feet in width. The statue features a Union soldier in winter gear and kepi cap.

An inscription reads: The war for the Union was right, everlastingly right, and the war against the Union was wrong, forever wrong

Names of the 107 men from Lewis County who died for the Union cause are inscribed on the memorial.

Although there are other Union monuments in Kentucky and the South, they’re all in cemeteries where Northern soldiers are buried.

The Vanceburg monument is one of 61 related to the Civil War in Kentucky on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the monuments honor Confederate soldiers. The only other memorial stating strong sentiment toward the Union is the Capt. Andrew Offutt Monument in Lebanon.

Other monuments sympathetic to the Union include the 32nd Indiana Monument, the GAR Monument in Covington, a Union monument in Louisville and another at Perryville.