Universal York

Many of you have probably driven past this Baltimore monument. It sits at the center of a small triangular park at the intersection of Charles Street and University Parkway. The front of the granite pedestal reads:

Carved on the back is:

What does this have to do with York County, PA? According to the undated clipping below, found in a scrapbook of one of her descendants, the seated woman is Kate Reilly Small, the second wife of W. Latimer Small of the prominent Small family of York.
The clipping reads:

Tribute to Well Known York Woman. “Polly Prattle” in yesterday’s Baltimore American says the following about a prominent York woman–Mrs. W. Latimer Small: “have you even taken a really good look at the monument to the Confederate women of Maryland on University Parkway, which was recently unveiled? I think nearly all of us have seen it as we passed to and from the Country Club, but only the other day I heard that the central figure was that of Kate Reilly. Surely, you remember this loveliest of all Virginia belles, now Mrs. Small, of York, and mother of our Katie Small Stewart. She is depicted holding the head of a soldier lad in her lap, an incident founded in fact, for the Virginia belle in the enthusiasm of her youth and her desire to be of service did hold the head of one of the Southern boys who had been wounded until he breathed his last.

Maryland was a border state during the Civil War. Although they never joined the Confederacy, many of their citizens sympathized with the South. Maryland is well populated with monuments for both sides. Click here to see more Baltimore monuments.