Near the hilltop where Confederate General John B. Hood observed the 1864 Battle of Atlanta, lie the bones of 3,000 unknown Confederate soldiers who perished in one of the most pivotal battles of the American Civil War. Perhaps the most striking monument in Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery, known as the “Lion of the Confederacy,” guards these unknown remains. Sculptor T.M. Brady carved this monument in 1894, using of the largest pieces of marble quarried in Northern Georgia up to that time. I use the soft morning shadows to cloak the huge paw of the sleeping lion, as well as much of it mane and half of its face. The play of light emphasizes the no longer dangerous rows of teeth in the lion’s open mouth, which seem to repeat the rows of stars in the furled battle flag of the defeated Confederacy.