James Smith, brother of Col. Robert A. Smith, came to America from Scotland in 1884, visited the battlefield at Munfordville, and purchased land there to erect a massive and costly monument in honor of his brother, who was slain in the battle. Other monuments to Robert Smith were erected in Mississippi and in Scotland. With the exception of Cleopatra's Needle in New York, it was said to be the largest single stone monument in America and the largest created in this country. Its gross weight is about 35 tons, and it stands 21 feet high, with a diameter of four feet at the base. It is set on a foundation of rock and cement extending ten feet under the ground. The stone took two months to erect, at a cost of $4,000. It stands on the site of a Confederate redan constructed by Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner in 1861. Within its fence are the monument itself, six smaller markers for the Mississippi dead of the battle of Munfordville, and the bodies of the slain in a mutual grave. Quarried near Bowling Green and shaped in Nashville, it was brought to the site by train. While it was being raised, the original pyramid-like obelisk top sheared off, and a new angled top was reshaped on the spot.