Creation
On 17 December 1861, the regiment successfully defended a crucial bridge, but 13 were killed and 30 were wounded. Christian Friedrich August Bloedner served as a private at the battle. Wishing to honor his fallen comrades, he designed and constructed a monument from a chunk of limestone, completing it in January 1862. It is the oldest surviving memorial to the American Civil War. It weighs 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg).
The German inscription on the monument translates roughly to "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."
In June 1867, after the national cemetery was created at Cave Hill, the fallen soldiers and the monument were moved to their current location. The monument was meant to be flat on the ground, but when moved, was placed standing up. Due to the monument being moved, the National Park Service considered the Hazen Brigade Monument at Stones River National Battlefield to be the oldest, even though it was constructed a year later.
Read more about this topic: 32nd Indiana Monument
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