The monument honors the Confederate soldiers of Stanly County for service in the C.S.A. from 1861 to 1865, declaring that whether known or unknown to fame, they died for the same cause and country and wore the gray, and invoking the lines, "The tumult and the shouting dies, the captains and the kings depart, Lord God of hosts be with us yet, Lest we forget—Lest we forget."