32nd Indiana Monument The 32nd Indiana Monument , also known as the August Bloedner Monument , formerly located in Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville , Kentucky , honors the fallen soldiers of the 32nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment , also known as the " 1st German , " at the Battle of Rowlett ' s Station , near Munfordville , Kentucky . For most of its existence it had been at the cemetery , but is presently at the Frazier International History Museum lobby for display . 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 . 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 . Recent events . On 17 July 1997 , the 32nd Indiana Monument , along with the nearby Union Monument in Louisville , also at Cave Hill Cemetery , was added to the National Register of Historic Places – two of 60 American Civil War monuments in Kentucky honored on the same day . Most of these monuments honor fallen Confederate , not Union , forces . Three other Civil War monuments are also in Jefferson County , Kentucky : the Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown , the Louisville Confederate Monument on the University of Louisville Belknap Campus , and the John B . Castleman Monument in Cherokee Triangle . The porous limestone monument has been severely damaged over time by artificial pollutants and natural weathering , and most of the inscription has faded away . Currently , a wooden structure protects the monument from further decay . One plan to preserve it would have been to house it at the Hart County Historical Society Museum in Munfordville , making granite copies to place at both its current and original locations . Conservation Solutions , Inc . ( CSI ) decided that to maintain the monument , it had to be removed to an indoor display . Conservation methods included " cleaning , re - attaching flaking and spalled stone surfaces , removal of inappropriate patch materials and patching " . Three Kentucky museums vied for displaying it after repairs , with the Frazier Museum given it over Hart County ' s and the Patton Museum at Fort Knox , Kentucky by the National Cemetery Administration . However , Battle for the Bridge Historical Society may try to get it moved to Munfordville . It went on display at the Frazier Museum in August 2010 in the lobby area , so that visitors need not pay to see it . Since its move , it has been removed from the National Register of Historic Places .