316 Southern Historical Society Papers.
the southern end of the Capitol yard. The ladies, while of course discouraged at the refusal of the Legislature to help them, bravely continued their work, and in April, 1888, closed the contract with J. T. Whitehead & Co., of Jackson, Tenn., to build the monument. On May 25, of the same year, the corner-stone was laid by the Grand Body of Masons of the State, with imposing ceremonies. Miss Winnie Davis, "Daughter of the Confederacy," was present and added much to the enthusiasm of the occasion. General Charles E. Hooker was the orator of the day.
The Legislature of 1890 reversed the action of the Legislature of 1888, and a bill appropriating ten thousand dollars to the monument passed the Senate by nineteen to eleven, and the House by fifty-seven to forty-one, and was promptly approved by the governor, John M. Stone, than whom there was no braver soldier nor gallant colonel who drew blade for the Confederacy. The appropriation secured, added to the amount collected by the ladies, the completion of the monu- ment was only a question of time ; and to-day it stands not only as a "monument to the Confederate dead," but as a monument to the undying and untiring energy as well as to the devotion of the women of Mississippi to the cause lost but not forgotten.
The monument stands in the southern end of the Capitol grounds. It stands upon a concrete foundation ; the base is twenty-lour feet square. The arches and supports are of white limestone from Bowl- ing Green, Ky. The dies resting on the stone bases are intended to represent the walls of a castle of the olden times pattern, and are thirteen and twenty four feet in dimensions. On the north and south sides, on a smooth marble slab, is the inscription : " To the Confed- erate Dead of Mississippi." The vaulted chamber, which opens east and west, and which is to contain the statue of Jefferson Davis, is about seven feet high, and will be locked when the statue is put in place. This vault or receptacle is octagon in shape, has a red and white marble floor, in the centre of which the corner-stone and inscription placed thereon May 5, 1888, is of red and white marble. It is over seven feet in diameter. The statue of Mr. Davis, which is to stand in the centre of the chamber over the corner or centre stone, was made in Italy, and represents Mr. Davis in the act of delivering a speech, there being a scroll of paper in his right hand and a pile of books at his feet. On the six marble slabs forming the walls of this chamber are the following inscriptions :
