Descendants of an Indiana Civil War regiment unveiled a panel that explains the history of a monument in Louisville. The monument honors 13 members of the regiment who were killed in battle. PHOTO BY SAM UPSHAW JR., THE COURIER-JOURNAL

With Union re-enactors forming an honor guard and unleashing a round of cannon fire from an adjacent hill, a group of local historians and preservationists unveiled an interpretive panel at a Civil War memorial at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville yesterday.

The panel, adjacent to the monument for the 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment, explains the monument's history and represents the first step in efforts to preserve it.

Historians said the monument, thought to be the oldest surviving Civil War memorial, eventually will be moved to a museum under development near Munfordville, Ky.

The monument honors 13 members of the regiment who were killed at the battle of Rowlett's Station, an indecisive engagement near Munfordville on Dec. 17, 1861. It was sculpted out of a block of limestone by August Bloedner, a soldier in the 32nd Indiana, and erected near Munfordville in 1862.

It was relocated to Cave Hill in 1867 when the dead from the battle were reinterred there.

Tom Fugate, military sites coordinator for the Kentucky Heritage Council, said the monument has become difficult to read because of erosion.

''If the ultimate decision comes to move it indoors and take it off the site, this will give us a sense of what was here and the significance of why it was here,'' Fugate said of the panel.

The panel cost about $1,200 and was paid for with donations from re-enactment groups, historians, and students at Northridge Middle School in Crawfordsville, Ind. A representative of the school, a re-enacting group from Lafayette, Ind., and descendants of regiment members took part in the unveiling.

John Trowbridge, manager of the Kentucky Military History Museum in Frankfort, said it would cost an added $1,000 to prepare the marker for its move to Munfordville.

He said the Kentucky National Guard has agreed to move the monument, and it will be housed at the Kentucky Military History Museum in about two years. It will be there until the Munfordville facility is ready, he said.

''Eventually, the only way we'll be able to preserve it is to get it indoors,'' Trowbridge said. ''The ideal location is in Hart County.''