32nd Indiana Monument

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The monument with the current protective structure made of wood.

The 32nd Indiana Monument , also known as the August Bloedner Monument , is a war memorial and is located in Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville , Kentucky . It commemorates the soldiers of the 32nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment who died in the Battle of Rowlett's Station near Munfordville . On December 17, 1861, the regiment repulsed an attack on a strategically important bridge, but 13 soldiers of the unit were killed and 30 others injured.

Christian Friedrich August Bloedner served as a private in the battle. Inspired by the desire to honor his fallen comrades, he designed and built a monument out of a piece of limestone . The memorial stone was completed in January 1862, making it the oldest surviving war memorial to the Civil War .

A relief at the top of the stone shows an eagle sitting on a cannon and two piles of cannon balls. Two unrolled flags of the United States frame the scene on either side. The left and right ends of this frieze each form an olive branch and an oak branch. The inscription below on the memorial stone reads:

“ Here rest the first martyrs of the thirty-second, the first German regiment of Indiana. You have fought admirably to defend the free constitution of the United States of America. They fell on the 17th day of December 1861 at the Battle of Rowlett's Station, in which a regiment of Texas Ranger, two regiments of infantry and six rebel cannons, over three thousand men in all, were defeated by five hundred German soldiers. "

In June 1867, after the National Cemetery was established in Cave Hill, the fallen soldiers and the memorial were moved to its current location. The monument, which was arranged horizontally at the original location, was erected upright. The newly added base bears the dedication In memory of the First Victims of the 32nd Reg. Indiana Vol. Who fell at the Battle of Rowlettd [sic!] Station Dec. 17, 1861. Because the memorial was relocated from its original location, the National Park Service considers the Hazen Brigade Monument on the Stones River National Battlefield to be the oldest Civil War memorial ; However, this was not created until 1862.

On July 17, 1997, the 32nd Indiana Monument and the Union Monument in Louisville, located in the same cemetery, were added to the National Register of Historic Places - two of the 61 Kentucky Civil War memorials added to the National Register that day were. Most of these war memorials commemorate soldiers of the Confederate States Army , not those of the Union Army.

Three other Civil War memorials are still in Jefferson County : the Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown , the Louisville Confederate Monument on the campus of the University of Louisville Belknap and the John B. Castleman Monument in Cherokee Triangle.

The porous limestone monument has weathered over time from the effects of weather and pollution, making most of the inscription impossible to decipher. A wooden structure protects the monument from further decay. One plan is to move the memorial to the Hart County's Historical Society Museum and to put granite replicas in its original and current location.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Department of Veterans Affairs - Cave Hill Cemetery ( English ) Retrieved on 29 May, 2009.
  2. ↑ IUPUI - 32nd Indiana Monument at Cave Hill Cemetery ( English ) Archived from the original on June 29, 2010. Retrieved on May 29, 2009: “ Here rest the first martyrs of the Thirty-second, the first German regiment of Indiana. They were fighting nobly in defense of the free Constitution of the United States of America. They fell on the 17th day of December, 1861, in the battle at Rowlett's Station, in which one regiment of Texas Rangers, two regiments of infantry, and six pieces of rebel artillery, in all over three thousand men, were defeated by five hundred German soldiers. "The German version of the text given here is the reverse translation of a translation into the English language , which is reproduced by Samuel W. Thomas in " Cave Hill Cemetery, A Pictorial Guide and Its History " .
  3. ↑ IUPUI - 32nd Indiana Monument at Cave Hill Cemetery ( English ) Archived from the original on June 29, 2010. Retrieved on 29 May, 2009.
  4. ↑ National Register of Historic Places listing ( English ) Retrieved on 29 May, 2009.
  5. ↑ German Indiana Regt. Monument To be Preserved ( English ) German American News. Archived from the original on April 7, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2009.

Coordinates: 38 ° 14 ′ 53.5 "  N , 85 ° 43 ′ 18.8"  W.