This past week, I had a business trip to Indianapolis. As I do on many of my road trips, I took my camera gear with me. While there are no Civil War battlefields in the Indianapolis area, there are many historical monuments. Additionally, there are a significant amount of Civil War notables buried in the state.
Indiana would be one of the first states to respond to Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 state militia troops, after the firing on Fort Sumter. According to the Civil War Indiana web site, troops from Indiana saw action in every major engagement during the war. She would send a total of 208,367 of her sons to fight for the Union. They served in 126 infantry regiments, 26 artillery batteries and 13 cavalry regiments. While over 75,000 Indiana soldiers would be seriously wounded, 24,416 died from all causes.
When I planned my business trip to the Hoosier state, I primarily wanted to get some pictures of the famous Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Indianapolis. It is the largest such monument in the country, towering 284 feet over Monument Circle. The basement of the monument holds the Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum. Well conditioned
visitors can climb the 331 steps to the observation tower and enjoy a wonderful view of the downtown area.
After investigating general officers buried in the state, I learned of Crown Hill Cemetery. Overlooking downtown Indianapolis it contains the graves of several general officers, Colonel Eli Lilly and Colonel Benjamin Harrison, who would become our 23d President. Additionally, a section of the cemetery was set aside as the Crown Hill National Cemetery with its evenly lined rows of soldier and sailor graves. An interesting section of the cemetery houses a mass grave where over 1,700 Confederate POW’s were buried. Recent efforts have marked the site with a modest monument and plaques that list the names of those buried under the mound.
On my drive back to Saint Louis, I planned on making a slight detour to Crawfordsville, Indiana where the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum is located. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, but I was able to visit Wallace’s grave at Oak Hill Cemetery.
My last stop was in Terre Haute, where I visited US Brigadier General Charles Cruft’s grave, at Woodlawn Cemetery. Additionally, Terre Haute has a wonderful set of war monuments, at Vigo County court house. The Civil War monument is quite impressive for a town of its size.
While I only was able to visit a handful of sites, Indiana has many more that I will have to visit at a later date. If your travels take you to Indiana, make sure to plan some additional time to visit some of these wonderful memorials to her soldiers.
To view my photo essay, on my trip to Indiana, click HERE.
###
