Virginia, will perhaps be two of the speakers for the occasion, and the Governors of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas are expected to be present.
The monument was designed by the Italian sculptor, Chevalier Trentanove, who is now at work on the bronze statue in Florence. The statue is 12 feet 7 inches in height, and represents a private Southern soldier. The figure stands with folded arms, gazing slightly upward, and weaponless, except a pistol belted at the side. The dress of the soldier caused the question of propriety to be raised by some of the ex-Confederates here, who said the uniform was incongruous because of the fact that the designer put cavalry boots on his model. Others contend that the mixture of dress makes the statue represent the two important branches of the army—the infantry and cavalry—and on that account gives the monument a more general character.
The base of the monument will be 14 feet square and made of Vermont granite. The foundation will be in four pieces, and each succeeding layer will consist of a solid stone. The base of the monument will be 18 feet high.
The Confederate Cemetery at Springfield contains about four acres of ground, and is inclosed by a wall of limestone that will stand for ages without the need of repair.
There are about 500 graves in the cemetery, most of them marked unknown, for the Confederate dead were not interred here until several years after the close of the war, and the bones gathered up at Wilson Creek and other battlefields near Springfield could seldom be identified.
The Southern forces lost at Wilson Creek about 263 men killed on the battlefield or mortally wounded.
On the 8th of January, 1863, what is known here as the Battle of Springfield, or "the Marmaduke fight," was fought in the southern part of the old town. General John S. Marmaduke, afterwards one of the governors of Missouri, commanded the Confederate forces in that engagement. The Southern dead were left on the field, and buried by the citizens of Springfield the day after the battle. The graves were dug just south of what was then the southern edge of the town, and in 1868, when it became necessary to extend South Street, the workmen,
