PREFACE


    We cherish the memory of the soldiers who gave their
jives to the service of this country and who have thus secured
for their native State an honored name among the states of the
Nation.
    We rejoice that so many of the officers and men who won
lasting fame for Kentucky during the wars in which this
republic has been engaged, and who laid down their lives in the
defense of their country, have been removed to the State's
beautiful necropolis, and that they now rest in the bosom of
their native State and their bodies have become a part of the
earth for which they gave their lives. We rejoice that our
fathers have preserved in granite and marble the names of
those men who fell in the defense of this country, and by so
doing they testified to the world their regard for Kentucky's
gallant dead. We are also proud of those great Kentuckians
whose virtues and faithful service in civil life "are lamps unto
our feet and lights unto our path." Their purity of life, their
wisdom and their patriotism make their dust the most sacred
heritage of a patriotic people.
    All the nations of the earth have honored, and have
striven to perpetuate, the memory of their great and good. The
Jews carried with them the bones of Joseph, their benefactor,
during their wanderings through the wilderness, while in search
of the Promised Land. The pyramids of Egypt are monuments
to the great men of an early civilization.
    The ceremonies over the remains of the departed and the
manner of disposing of the dead have differed among different
nations, but all nations have rendered homage to, and have
honored in some way, their departed heroes, and no people
have ever arisen to power or greatness who have not striven
to perpetuate the memory of their great men and women. No
nation, whether barbarian or civilized, has failed to show some