Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

[Annette Bethke]

Oldest Civil War Monument in the U.S. Will Move to a New Home
Department of Veterans Affairs to place a new monument at
Louisville national cemetery


The historic Bloedner (32nd Indiana Infantry) Monument, the oldest Civil War monument in the United States, has suffered significant cumulative and natural damage during the years that it has been located at Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. Now it is being preserved by the National Cemetery Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs (NCA), working with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO/KY) of the Kentucky Heritage Council, and through a contract with Heritage Preservation. The NCA seeks to place the original Bloedner Monument at a facility that is secure, climate controlled and available to the public at no cost. Plans also call for a new monument and an interpretative sign to be placed at Cave Hill National Cemetery. Public comment on these proposals is invited.

An Informational Meeting, for those wishing to learn more and comment, is scheduled for:


Date: September 23, 2009
Time: 4-7 p.m.
Location: The Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street, Louisville, KY 40206-2011



For more information about this project, please visit: http://www.cem.va.gov/hist/BloednerMon.asp

[David Fox]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

Hummm. Older than the U.S. Bull Run monument, also erected during the War! I've learned something. As a Hoosier born, I thank you.

[Annette Bethke]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

Don't know. The information came through on a Cemetery newsletter.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

The link provides the monument date: January 1862. That predates the Hazen Monument by about a year and a half.


This Rowlett's Station fight might be something interesting to recreate. Perhaps as a fundraiser for the monument?

[stx]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

The link provides the monument date: January 1862. That predates the Hazen Monument by about a year and a half.


This Rowlett's Station fight might be something interesting to recreate. Perhaps as a fundraiser for the monument?

I"m glad you mentioned that because I was always under the impression that the Hazen monument was the oldest ever erected.

[Matthew.Rector]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910050306

Courier-Journal
Louisville, Kentucky

October 5, 2009


Nation’s oldest Civil War monument marks Kentucky’s anniversary effort

By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com

On a cold December day in 1861, a few hundred German immigrants in blue Union uniforms squared off against 3,000 Confederates on foot and horseback near Munfordville, Ky.

When the withering artillery and musket fire cleared, the rebels fled, and Kentucky’s first Civil War battle ended in victory for the 32nd Indiana regiment known as the “First German.”

But before the regiment marched on, infantryman August Bloedner carved a limestone monument to the 13 Union dead — unwittingly leaving behind the Civil War’s first monument to fallen soldiers.

Now, nearly 150 years later, that monument is set to be placed in a museum, likely in Louisville, after being rescued and restored following decades of neglect and environmental wear that nearly destroyed it at Cave Hill Cemetery, where it has rested since 1867.

The Battle of Rowlett’s Station, and its important monument, is just one of the stories Kentucky officials will highlight as they prepare to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War — and the Commonwealth’s unique and deeply divided place in it.

According to the Kentucky Department of Archives and Libraries, more than 75,000 Kentuckians fought for the Union, while roughly 40,000 fought for the Confederacy. As many as one-third died from combat, disease and exposure, historians estimate.

“We were a border state; presidents of the North and South were both from Kentucky; and we had stars on both flags … it divided many families here,” said Donna Neary, director of Kentucky’s 2011-2015 Sesquicentennial Initiative aimed at commemorating the political, economic and cultural impact of the war in a slave-owning border state.

Kentucky recently received $1 million in federal funds to pay for events that will include traveling exhibitions, scholarly presentations, renovations of historic buildings and new highway markers. The commemoration will be organized by a 25-member Kentucky Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, recently created by Gov. Steve Beshear.

In addition, the state plans to spend $440,000 for improvements at the Battle of Richmond Park, near Richmond, Ky., where Union forces suffered a defeat as the Confederate Army advanced northward.

“There is no shortage of stories that have yet to be told about the Civil War in Kentucky,” Neary said.

The battle story behind the Bloedner monument, the war’s oldest-surviving memorial, began in an unlikely state, and from an unlikely unit, said historian Michael Peake.

The men who formed the First German Regiment were all recent immigrants between the ages of 17 and 49 and living in Louisville, New Albany and Evansville. Some had fought in Germany and fled to America after a failed effort to unify their native country.

They volunteered to fight for their new country, driven in part to prove their loyalty amid anti-immigration political movements that targeted Germans, Irish and Catholics. Among them was Henry Eisenbeis, a carpenter from Aurora, Ind., said his great-granddaughter, Delores Eisenbeis, 73, of Louisville, whose family passed down accounts of the battle and who has made visits to the monument.

In December of 1861, the unit was sent to secure a bridge over the Green River that had been blown up by Confederate sappers near Munfordville.

During the roughly hour-long battle, which included cavalry charges and hand-to-hand combat, Eisenbeis was shot in the leg. He carried the bullet in his leg the rest of his life.

The battle was the first Civil War skirmish in Kentucky, “and these were the first men of the state to perish in the conflict,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. While the skirmish was relatively brief, “it allowed the Union army to move forward and advance on Bowling Green,” Peake said.

It was after the battle that August Bloedner carved into an outcrop of limestone the names and birth dates of the 13 regiment soldiers killed, along with images of eagle and flags.

The memorial was erected in Munfordville in January 1862, and on June 6, 1867, the dead were removed from the field where they died and reburied at Cave Hill.

But acid rain and heat and cold extremes eventually ate away the porous limestone that commemorated the battle. Most of the inscription — which hailed the unit in German for “fighting nobly in defense of the free Constitution of the United States of America” — disappeared.

While most of the damage occurred in recent decades, it wasn’t until a Civil War memorial event was held in 2002 that historians and others began to realize the monument was disintegrating.

A wooden cover was erected to protect it from the elements, but, at the urging to Peake and others, the monument was removed from Cave Hill in 2008 for renovations.

“It was in sad, sad shape,” said University of Louisville archaeologist Phil DiBlasi, who works closely with local cemeteries.

With the help of the National Cemetery Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Kentucky historical officials, contractors working at the University of Louisville recently finished cleaning the monument, including injecting microscopic glass beads into the pores to firm up the limestone.

Officials also took a mold so they can construct a replica of the monument to be placed back at the original site in Cave Hill.

“We normally don’t take a historic object from its location, but we decided we needed to go to extreme measures to save this … it’s extremely important,” said Sara Amy Leach, a senior historian with the National Cemetery Administration, who estimated the cost of the effort to be in excess of $300,000, which is being paid for by the federal government.

Now, the only question is where the original monument will rest.

In the next few weeks, National Cemetery Administration officials are likely to choose among potential locations including the Frazier International History Museum, the Hart County historical society and the Patton Museum near Fort Knox, all of which offer climate-controlled environments and the ability to showcase the monument.

Finding a proper home is important to scholars and descendents, who view it as a key piece of Kentucky’s rich tapestry of Civil War history.

“It’s important because it’s the oldest, and these were men from Germany who were willing to fight for their country,” Eisenbeis said. “It was a noble act, and it should be remembered.”

Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at (502) 582-4697.

To Learn More

Additional Facts
For more information on Kentucky’s upcoming Civil War Sesquicentennial, visit the Kentucky Historical Society at www.history.ky.gov/civilwar.

[AZReenactor]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

Terry's Rangers were the cavalry force on the CS side of this. You can get more details on this skirmish on my site at http://www.terrystexasrangers.org/en...lle/index.html. There is also a nice book about the 32nd and photo of the monument online at http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/peake/index.html

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

Colonel August Willich (born von Willich) deserves special note for having also raised (in addition to the 32nd Indiana) the 9th Ohio ("Die Neuner"), which settled the battle of Mill Springs with a bayonet charge. Willich had established his stature in the German emigre community with his service during the 1848-49 revolution in Baden. Resigning from the Prussian army in 1846, and renouncing his title of nobility in 1847, in Baden he led a Freikorps and, with none other than Friedrich Engels serving as his adjutant, attempted to establish a German republic.

Willich would later fall out with Marx and Engels, but his views remained those of a revolutionary and, when he finally left the U.S. service, he did so as the highest ranking communist ever to serve in our army.

On the other hand, von Trebra had served in the Prussian army till 1854 and in 1848, while Willich was making a revolution in Baden, von Trebra was helping to put down another in Poland. Conversations in the mess must have been interesting at times.

I'm glad someone's stepping in to care for the monument.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

Colonel August Willich (born von Willich) deserves special note for having also raised (in addition to the 32nd Indiana) the 9th Ohio ("Die Neuner"), which settled the battle of Mill Springs with a bayonet charge. Willich had established his stature in the German emigre community with his service during the 1848-49 revolution in Baden. Resigning from the Prussian army in 1846, and renouncing his title of nobility in 1847, in Baden he led a Freikorps and, with none other than Friedrich Engels serving as his adjutant, attempted to establish a German republic.

Willich would later fall out with Marx and Engels, but his views remained those of a revolutionary and, when he finally left the U.S. service, he did so as the highest ranking communist ever to serve in our army.

On the other hand, von Trebra had served in the Prussian army till 1854 and in 1848, while Willich was making a revolution in Baden, von Trebra was helping to put down another in Poland. Conversations in the mess must have been interesting at times.


I'm glad someone's stepping in to care for the monument.

AS we know that monument is not dedicated to one person,..

Willich being communist is completely irrelevant to the memory of all of those soldiers.

I am glad to see the monument dedicated to all of the brave men of the 32nd indiana being preserved.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Oldest Civil War monument in U.S. to move to a new home

AS we know that monument is not dedicated to one person,..

Willich being communist is completely irrelevant to the memory of all of those soldiers.

I am glad to see the monument dedicated to all of the brave men of the 32nd indiana being preserved.

Well, I'm glad to see it, too, Pete, but I don't think Willich's background was irrelevant to the men of the 9th Ohio or the 32nd Indiana. In fact, it gave him a certain credibility among the local Turners and helped him raise both regiments.

A good book on Willich and the 32nd is August Willich's Gallant Dutchmen, which has a number of letters from its soldiers as well as contemporary articles about the regiment. To some, the struggle to maintain the American republic against what they saw as an insurrection of slave owners was a continuation of the struggle against the old aristocracy in Germany.

http://www.amazon.com/August-Willichs-Gallant-Dutchmen-Infantry/dp/0873388623

To call Willich a "communist" in the context of the mid-19th century is no slur against either his character or his love for his new country. To assume it is simply transposes 20th century American feelings about 20th century communism back to the 19th.

And as for us today, heritage takes many forms. For some it may be moonlight and magnolias. For others it is the cause that Willich described in his funeral oration over his dead soldiers (from the second of the links Troy Groves posted):

Witnessing the graveside ceremony, 15th Ohio Infantry Chaplain Richard L. Gunter recalled how, "The Colonel made a speech, and then remarked, 'that as their brave comrades had fallen in the struggle for human rights and liberty, and were now on their journey to immortality, they would give them three cheers;' and cheer they did..." Each member of the regiment, in passing by the slain, deposited a fistful of earth on the coffins in a final personal salute.