Memorials Inventory Project (MIP) Final Report, January 2006

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OLDEST CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL

Based on preliminary information, 32nd Indiana or 1st German Monument, also known as the Bloedner monument, is believed to be the first Civil War monument to have erected in the United States. The monument was carved from a slab of limestone by Private Augustus Bloedner, a soldier in the 32nd Indiana, to honor his comrades killed at the Battle of Rowlett’s Station in Kentucky on December 17, 1861. The monument was erected near the battle site in January 1862, but within just a few years it was moved to Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville, along with the remains of Bloedner’s comrades. The monument, which was inscribed in German, is in poor condition and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

LARGEST MEMORIAL

At 85 feet wide, 360 feet long, and 107 feet high, the largest memorial is the Pennsylvania Veteran’s Memorial installed at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania. The monument, funded by the state, was dedicated on October 7, 2001. It is composed of landscaped plazas, amphitheater seating, and restroom facilities designed to evoke a ruinous church site.


NCA MEMORIALS TO PRESIDENTS

The Zachary Taylor Monument located near his burial crypt at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, was the only memorial found erected to an American president. The monument was erected in 1883. Taylor had a military career that spanned 40-years in the U.S. Army and went on to become the Nation’s 12th president in 1849. His presidency was short-lived though, as he died in July 1850, which made him the second president to die in office. To learn more about Zachary Taylor, please visit this site: 
www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/zt12.html. 

The Jefferson Davis Memorial, located at Fort Crawford Cemetery Soldier’s Lot in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, was erected in memory of the former president of the defunct Confederate States of America. Davis was assigned to Fort Crawford in 1831 as a lieutenant and went on the fight in the Black Hawk and Mexican wars. He served as U.S. Secretary of War from 1853-57 and was sole president of the Confederacy. Upon his death on December 6, 1889, he was buried at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. In 1893, he was re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

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