Civil War Monument may find new home
Photo on left was from Spring 1994. Photo on right was taken in March 2000. This shows the amount of deterioration which has occurred in that period of time.
Flanked by serpentine rows of white headstones flowing silently along a grassy swale, what may be the nation's oldest Civil War memorial could be leaving Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery for a better place.
The limestone memorial, chipped and pitted by time, apparently was first placed on a Hart County battlefield within weeks of the Dec. 17, 1861, battle of Rowlett's Station of the Green River near Munfordville.
The full story, involving Kentucky and Indiana, is as complex, compelling, quixotic and violent as the war.
It begins with historian Michael A. Peake, a former Louisvillian now living in Woodlawn, Tenn. As a child Peake wandered the "avenues of monuments" at Cave Hill. In 1996, returning for a visit, he was struck by the limestone memorial near the Civil War dead.
Its sculptor had included an eagle, its wings spread, clutching a brace of cannon, an olive sprig and an oak branch. The inscription in the stone's base -- with Rowlett's spelled incorrectly -- reads: "In memory of the First Victims of the 32. Reg. Indiana Vol. who fell at the Battle of Rowlettd Station Dec. 17 1861."
Intrigued, Peake began researching the 32nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry and wrote a booklet about it: "Indiana's German Sons -- the 32nd Volunteer Infantry."
The regiment was Indiana's first "ethnic" Civil War regiment. Its members were Germans, many born in what was then Prussia. They enlisted in the Union cause to verify their patriotism.
The regiment's leader, August Willich, was trained as a military cadet in Prussia and had battlefield experience in German revolts and our Civil War. Volunteers flocked to him from Evansville, Madison, Jeffersonville, New Albany and Clarksville. Immigrants from Louisville's Germantown also joined the call.
All spoke -- and took marching orders -- in German.
The regiment trained at Camp Murphy in Indianapolis. In October 1861, with Confederate raiders destroying bridges near Munfordville and Elizabethtown, and scaring the bejebbers out of Louisville residents, the 32nd Regiment joined other Union forces and moved through Louisville.
It was heartily welcomed by Louisville's German community with a huge party, food and kegs of beer. Its test came in December in a two-hour fury of hand-to-hand combat and bayonet charges along the Green River in which 33 Germans died in a winning cause, one of the Union's few early victories, earning the 32nd national acclaim.
Soon after the battle, August Bloedner, a private and a stone mason, used a piece of porous limestone outcropping to sculpt the memorial to his comrades.
Peake's research indicates it was placed on the battlefield in January 1862. The memorial -- and the soldiers' remains -- were moved to Cave Hill in 1867.
Until now, Peake said, most people thought the oldest Civil War memorial was at the Stones River National Battlefield in Tennessee, placed in early 1863. His research indicates Kentucky may have the oldest. Peake is part of a committee that wants to move the decaying memorial from Cave Hill, which has no objections, to inside a new Hart County Historical Society museum near the battlefield.
A historic marker would replace it at Cave Hill, and there are hopes that replicas of the memorial can be carved for both Cave Hill and the Rowlett's Station site.
Fund raising has begun. Contact John Trowbridge of The Kentucky Military History Museum, (502) 564-3265 or john.trowbridge@mail.state.ky.us, if you want to help.
"It's very important," said Peake, "to Kentucky and Indiana."
The above appeared in Louisville Courier-Journal on Thursday, July 13, 2000, and was written by Bob Hill.
For an update on the monument.
Visit the Louisville Civil War Round Table website.
Photo on left was from Spring 1994. Photo on right was taken in March 2000. This shows the amount of deterioration which has occurred in that period of time.
Flanked by serpentine rows of white headstones flowing silently along a grassy swale, what may be the nation's oldest Civil War memorial could be leaving Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery for a better place.
The limestone memorial, chipped and pitted by time, apparently was first placed on a Hart County battlefield within weeks of the Dec. 17, 1861, battle of Rowlett's Station of the Green River near Munfordville.
The full story, involving Kentucky and Indiana, is as complex, compelling, quixotic and violent as the war.
It begins with historian Michael A. Peake, a former Louisvillian now living in Woodlawn, Tenn. As a child Peake wandered the "avenues of monuments" at Cave Hill. In 1996, returning for a visit, he was struck by the limestone memorial near the Civil War dead.
Its sculptor had included an eagle, its wings spread, clutching a brace of cannon, an olive sprig and an oak branch. The inscription in the stone's base -- with Rowlett's spelled incorrectly -- reads: "In memory of the First Victims of the 32. Reg. Indiana Vol. who fell at the Battle of Rowlettd Station Dec. 17 1861."
Intrigued, Peake began researching the 32nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry and wrote a booklet about it: "Indiana's German Sons -- the 32nd Volunteer Infantry."
The regiment was Indiana's first "ethnic" Civil War regiment. Its members were Germans, many born in what was then Prussia. They enlisted in the Union cause to verify their patriotism.
The regiment's leader, August Willich, was trained as a military cadet in Prussia and had battlefield experience in German revolts and our Civil War. Volunteers flocked to him from Evansville, Madison, Jeffersonville, New Albany and Clarksville. Immigrants from Louisville's Germantown also joined the call.
All spoke -- and took marching orders -- in German.
The regiment trained at Camp Murphy in Indianapolis. In October 1861, with Confederate raiders destroying bridges near Munfordville and Elizabethtown, and scaring the bejebbers out of Louisville residents, the 32nd Regiment joined other Union forces and moved through Louisville.
It was heartily welcomed by Louisville's German community with a huge party, food and kegs of beer. Its test came in December in a two-hour fury of hand-to-hand combat and bayonet charges along the Green River in which 33 Germans died in a winning cause, one of the Union's few early victories, earning the 32nd national acclaim.
Soon after the battle, August Bloedner, a private and a stone mason, used a piece of porous limestone outcropping to sculpt the memorial to his comrades.
Peake's research indicates it was placed on the battlefield in January 1862. The memorial -- and the soldiers' remains -- were moved to Cave Hill in 1867.
Until now, Peake said, most people thought the oldest Civil War memorial was at the Stones River National Battlefield in Tennessee, placed in early 1863. His research indicates Kentucky may have the oldest. Peake is part of a committee that wants to move the decaying memorial from Cave Hill, which has no objections, to inside a new Hart County Historical Society museum near the battlefield.
A historic marker would replace it at Cave Hill, and there are hopes that replicas of the memorial can be carved for both Cave Hill and the Rowlett's Station site.
Fund raising has begun. Contact John Trowbridge of The Kentucky Military History Museum, (502) 564-3265 or john.trowbridge@mail.state.ky.us, if you want to help.
"It's very important," said Peake, "to Kentucky and Indiana."
The above appeared in Louisville Courier-Journal on Thursday, July 13, 2000, and was written by Bob Hill.
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