Preservation of Oldest Civil War Memorial: Bloedner Monument Moved From Cave Hill National Cemetery

On December 17, 1861, a battle ensued at Rowlett’s Station in western Kentucky in which the 32^nd Indiana Infantry Regiment, composed entirely of German immigrants, deflected a Confederate attack. Union casualties were less than 40.  On the 147^th anniversary of this battle, in December 2008, the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) commenced a comprehensive effort to preserve the unique memorial carved for these fallen soldiers in the weeks following the battle. Private August Bloedner, a member of the unit, utilized a natural outcrop of limestone to fashion the monument, and it was placed on the graves at Munfordville, KY, by the end of January 1862 before the 32^nd Indiana Infantry marched on. The Bloedner Monument is the nation’s oldest Civil War monument, and as such possesses exceptional historic significance.

In 1867, the remains of these fallen soldiers and their monument were moved to Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville. Cave Hill National Cemetery is located in a corner of historic Cave Hill Cemetery, a premier Rural-style burial ground established in 1848. Initial interments of soldiers who died at camps and hospitals in the Louisville area occurred in November 1861.

The fragile Bloedner Monument, also known as the “First German” Monument, was transported to a curatorial facility at the University of Louisville where it may reside up to three years. Unfortunately, only about 50 percent of the original inscription – a relief sculpture of an eagle and about 300 words in German carved in a rustic Fraktur-like script – survive. Professional conservators will treat the monument while it is at the university to retard further loss of material; in the meantime, NCA will be seeking an appropriate facility where it can be displayed to the public.

Concurrent to this work, NCA is pursuing the creation of a replica of the monument based on a 1955 photograph when it was in better condition and historic transcriptions of the inscription to install at Cave Hill National Cemetery. Failure of the monument is due in part to the fact it was fabricated from a poor-quality St. Genevieve limestone; in contrast, the small base made of Bedford limestone installed at the national cemetery in 1867 is in very good condition. Pollution and other environmental foes have hastened deterioration of the limestone. The monument measures approximately 5 feet long, 1 foot deep and 3.5 feet high and it weighs about 3,500 pounds.

NCA’s contractor for the overall project is Heritage Preservation of Washington, D.C., which has extensive experience in outdoor sculpture preservation and care. Conservation Solutions Inc. of Santa Fe, NM, is the conservator. All plans for the monument are being done in collaboration with the VA Historic Preservation Office and the Kentucky Heritage Council, the state’s Historic Preservation Office. While the monument is at the university, NCA and the Kentucky Heritage Council will work with Civil War-interest groups and others to identify a facility where it can be displayed and protected over the long term. The Bloedner Monument replica and interpretive signage about it is slated to be placed in Cave Hill National Cemetery by September 2009.

August Bloedner was born in 1827 in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg (now Thuringia), Germany, and he arrived in the United States about 1849. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Bloedner enlisted for three years; he was sent to Indianapolis to serve in the 32^nd Indiana Infantry, because it was made up of German immigrants, many of whom were not fluent in English. The Battle of Rowlett’s Station did not result in a victory for either side, but the Union forces did protect a local railroad, ensuring that troops and supplies would continue to move through the area.

*  *  *

The Scene in 1861-62

Interment of some of the 32^nd Indiana Infantry dead on the Munfordville battlefield in December 1861, and later installation of the monument, is documented in letters from soldiers who witnessed it. “On the morning after the battle, 10 of the fallen were buried on top of a knoll with all military honors,” wrote one. In the afternoon, a military procession “moved to the burial place under the sounds of a mournful dirge…. Then the dead were lowered into the graves under inspiring sounds of the ‘Marsallaise.’ The companies to which the dead men belonged stepped forward, pulled sprigs of evergreen from their hats and dropped them on their former brothers in arms as a last greeting.”  In early February 1862, the regiment passed by these soldiers’ graves again, and one soldier found, “Their burial site is surrounded by rails, their burial mound is adorned with fir trees and ivy…. A stone lays among these trees that contains (sic) the names, ages and birthplaces of these heroes handsomely and tastefully carved by an artist in the regiment. There are 12 names on the monument as well as an inscription that displays fierce Germanic pride for serving the Union despite some unfamiliarity with the language of the United States:

Here rest the first men of the 32nd First German Regiment of Indiana who gave their lives for the free institutions of the Republic of the United States of North America. They fell on 17 December 1861 in the encounter at Rowlett's Station, Ky., in which 1 regiment of Texas-Rangers, 2 regiments of infantry and 6 cannons of the Rebels, more than 3,000 strong, were beaten into flight from the battlefield by 500 German soldiers.

Source:   Joseph R. Reinhart, August Willich’s Gallant Dutchmen: Civil War Letters from the 32^nd Indiana Infantry (Kent State University Press, 2006)