Indiana Monument

Indiana Monument in Cemetery next to Section I.

NPS/Andersonville NHS

It is relatively easy to die on the field of battle, but to linger in captivity, while awaiting the inevitable, though slow, visit of the "grim reaper" is so infinitely hard as to be deserving of a monument.
—Colonel S.R. Jones of Indiana

Indiana would not forget its sons who fought so valiantly on the battlefields in the South. As the government created the national military parks, the state appropriated funds and created commissions to erect monuments to its soldiers. Colonel C.C. Schreeder, an Indiana veteran who served in the war, made it his mission to honor the 702 Indiana residents who perished in the Southern prison camp at Andersonville. The state could not forget those men who, in the face of cruelty, remained loyal until the end.

At the turn of the century, Colonel C.C. Schreeder made a tour of the South. He visited the battlefields he once fought on and those he knew only as landmark battles from the war. As he made his way through Georgia, he made a stop at the Andersonville Prison Park and National Cemetery. The colonel's heart saddened on seeing the rows of white headstones. Schreeder walked around, admiring the monuments erected by New Jersey and Ohio. When the veteran returned home, he became determined that his home state should honor its sons at Andersonville as well. In 1903, while attending the annual GAR encampment, the colonel organized a movement to petition the Indiana legislature to erect a memorial. The GAR committee made of ex-prisoners, except for Schreeder who felt passionate about erecting the monument. Two years later, while serving as a member of the lower house, the colonel presented a bill to appropriate $8,000 and a commission for a memorial to the Andersonville prisoners.

The time could not have been worse for Schreeder and the former prisoners' bill. That session, representatives brought forth several bills requesting funding for memorials. They were all similar in nature to the Andersonville bill. The legislature, feeling the pinch of a tight budget and the need to honor the state's wartime governor, Oliver P. Morton, who had clone much to help the war and Reconstruction efforts, thought it was only right to recognize his leadership. Schreeder and his committee were not discouraged. The men went to the governor to request that he ask the legislature to pass a bill for a monument in his speech. In January 1907, Schreeder reintroduced the bill and asked for $10,000 and a commission. The bill first went to the military committee, of which Schreeder was the chair, and passed with slight opposition. It then went on to the state senate, where it faced opposition, and was then referred to the finance committee. After some political maneuvering, the bill passed the committee and went before the senate again. In March 1907, the bill finally passed, and the governor signed it into law.

From the Book: A History of Andersonville Prison Monuments. By Stacy W. Reaves

South Side of Indiana Monument:
INDIANA
1908
UNDER AUTHORITY OF AN ACT OF THE SIXTY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF INDIANA.

INDIANA MOURNS FOR HER FALLEN HEROES, THE 702 BRAVE SONS, WHO FOR THE CAUSE THEY LOVED, GAVE UP THEIR LIVES IN ANDERSONVILLE PRISON FROM FEBRUARY, 1864, TO APRIL, 1865.

DEATH DID NOT AFFRIGHT THEM, NOR FEAR SUBDUE THEM, NOR COULD FAMINE BREAK THEIR INCORRUPTIBLE SPIRIT.

East Side of Indiana Monument:
WITH GREAT PITY FOR THEIR SUFFERINGS, BUT A GREATER ADMIRATION FOR THEIR UNFALTERING FIDELITY.

North Side of Indiana Monument:
TILL THE MOUNTAINS ARE WORN OUT, AND THE RIVERS CEASE TO FLOW, SHALL THEIR NAMES BE KEPT FRESH WITH REVERENT HONORS, WHICH ARE INSCRIBED UPON THE BOOK OF NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE.

West Side of Indiana Monument:
NOT THEIRS THE MATCHLESS DEATH BY SWORD OR SHOT; INSTEAD THE AGONY OF MARTYRDOM