WI -- Madison -- Wisconsin Veterans Museum:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- WVM_070706_038.JPG: Ethnic Regiments:
Wisconsin Civil War regiments reflected the racial and ethnic make up of the state. Sixty percent of Wisconsin's Civil War citizen-soldiers were born in the U.S. -- with the remainder coming largely from immigrant groups that had settled in the state. Since Wisconsin's popular was so varied, members of virtually all of the state's ethnic groups could be found in any particular regiment. But a number of companies and even some regiments became known for the ethnic group that dominated the organization.
A Lot of Ole Olsons -- The Fifteenth Wisconsin Infantry became known as the Scandinavian Regiment. So many of its members were named Ole Olson that they had to be assigned numbers. The regimental commander, Colonel Hans C. Heg, was a leading Norwegian-American politician before being killed at Chickamauga.
Germans and Irish -- German units also were formed, particularly in Milwaukee. The Ninth, Eighteenth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Wisconsin Infantry regiments were predominantly German. The Twenty-sixth Regiment gained fame at Gettysburg. Irish Wisconsinites served throughout the state's forces, but the Seventeenth Wisconsin Infantry was known as the "Irish Brigade." The unit carried a green banner.
American Indians -- Nearly 600 of Wisconsin's Native Americans served in the Civil War. Winnebago, Oneida, Stockbridge, Chippewa, and Menominee found their way into various state units. Menominee volunteers made up Company K of the Thirty-seventh Wisconsin Infantry and suffered high times during the assault on Confederate trenches at Petersburg.
Blacks -- Members of Wisconsin's Black community also supported the war effort. Some 129 Black Wisconsinites formed Company F of the Twenty-ninth U.S. Colored Troops. Some 234 found themselves in other units. Black volunteers came from Milwaukee, La Crosse, and Prairie du Chien.
- WVM_070706_048.JPG: The Weapons of War
- WVM_070706_061.JPG: A scene from the corn field at Antietam
- WVM_070706_091.JPG: Old Baldy. The actual bird died and was stuffed and placed in the capitol building but it was destroyed in a fire. So this is a replica of a replica.
- WVM_070706_097.JPG: Politics and Reconstruction: The Birth of Veterans' Organizations:
-- "Vote the way you shot." -- Campaign slogan -- 1876-1877.
The large number of Civil War veterans offered an attractive band of potential voters for soldier-politicians to court after the war. Who better understood the needs of the recently mustered-out citizen-soldier? Who could better see that the nation recognized its "debt of gratitude" to Union veterans? According to politicians who had served in the war, who better, indeed, than a fellow comrade in arms, particularly one who had been wounded in battle. The veterans began to view themselves as a group distinct from the rest of society.
In Wisconsin, Lucius Fairchild, who had lost an arm at Gettysburg, became the state's first Civil War veteran governor, largely due to the support of former soldiers. Fairchild served for three terms during Reconstruction, an intensely political period following the war when veterans' spokesmen in the North affiliated themselves with the Republican party and its plan to reconstruct the ex-Confederate states. Union veterans in 1866 organized the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the nation's first mass veterans' organization.
The GAR dominated the affairs of the Union veterans' community until its decline in the twentieth century. GAR politicians, like their counterparts in the South, "waved the bloody shirt," promoting wartime memories and hatreds in order to garner local political support.
- WVM_070706_111.JPG: Part of the GAR display
- WVM_070706_130.JPG: For God and Country:
-- "To foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism." -- Preamble to American Legion Constitution -- 1919
Following World War I and the rapid demobilization of more than 5 million soldiers, the United States experienced its greatest influx of veterans to date. Many veterans required continued medical care, and most faced difficulty in finding employment in the post-war economic slump. In addition, they returned home to a climate of social unrest, fueled by the fear that Communism would spread to the U.S. following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
World War I veterans began organizing even before they left Europe. In Paris, a group of American Army officers, lead by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., organized the American Legion in February 1919. That May, the Legion drafted a constitution, and by November held its first annual convention. The Legion quickly became the largest veterans' association in the nation, despite limiting its membership to World War I vets.
After World War II, the American Legion admitted members from other wars, adopting the "evergreen" policy of the VFW. With its size and influence, the Legion became the true successor to the GAR, and remains the largest veterans' association in the nation, with more than 3 million members, including more than 70,000 in Wisconsin.
- WVM_070706_133.JPG: Perpetual and Evergreen:
-- "We have entered into a new epoch in veterans' organizations. Such societies have come and gone. Others are fading away, but ours is destined to live as long as the country lives -- forever!" -- The Veteran, 1914
Some members of Spanish-American War veterans organizations realized the limitation of restricting membership to participants of a particular war. As GAR posts disbanded due to declining membership during the early 1900s, a number of Spanish War veterans sought to organize a more enduring association, one that would be perpetual and remain "evergreen." In 1914, two Spanish War groups merged to form the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW).
The VFW grew out of a group called the American Veterans of Foreign Service (AVFS), founded in 1899. This was the first such group to open its membership to veterans of past and future wars. But the AVFS imposed its own restrictions, limiting membership to those who had served in overseas campaigns. In 1914, the AVFS merged with the Society of Army of the Philippines for form the VFW.
While the VFW never seriously rivaled the GAR or the USWV before World War I, its organizational innovations made for an enduring association. Its flexible membership policy perpetuated the VFW past a single generation, paving the way for modern veterans' organizations. Successfully recruiting members from later conflicts, the VFW survives to this day. In fact, it is the second largest veterans' association in the nation, claiming more than 2,100,000 members, with more than 50,000 of those in Wisconsin.
- WVM_070706_135.JPG: A National Organization:
-- "No child can be born into [the USWV], no proclamation of President, edict of King or Czar can command admission... the wealth of a Rockefeller or a Ford cannot purchase the position... With the consummation of peace through victory, its rolls were forever closed." -- USWV encampment program, 1946
Following the Spanish-American and Philippine wars, a new generation of citizen-soldiers entered the ranks of the veterans' community. Veterans of the 1898 to 1902 era shared some of the interests of the Civil War veteran, but they also had unique concerns. Both sought the fraternity of other war veterans. Both encouraged patriotism and "Americanism." But Spanish War veterans were particularly proud that they had all been volunteers, and that their efforts had helped to unify a nation still divided by Civil War animosities.
Spanish War veterans felt profound disappointment with the homecoming they received, however. Their jobs had been taken by civilians, and many were plagued by tropical diseases contract while in the service. Despite the nation's wealth, the public ignored Spanish War vets' problems.
In response, associations of Spanish War veterans sprang up across the United States. In late 1899, the Milwaukee chapter of an organization named the Spanish-American War Veterans became the first such group in Wisconsin. By 1904, the group merged with two other associations to form the United Spanish War Veterans. The USWV modeled itself on the GAR organizationally, addressed issues important to veterans, and limited its membership to veterans of the 1898 to 1902 era. The USWV became a truly national veterans' association, unlike the GAR, with its heritage of Civil War sectionalism.
- WVM_070706_140.JPG: Politics and Reconstruction: The Birth of Veterans' Organizations:
-- "Vote the way you shot." -- Campaign slogan -- 1876-1877.
The large number of Civil War veterans offered an attractive band of potential voters for soldier-politicians to court after the war. Who better understood the needs of the recently mustered-out citizen-soldier? Who could better see that the nation recognized its "debt of gratitude" to Union veterans? According to politicians who had served in the war, who better, indeed, than a fellow comrade in arms, particularly one who had been wounded in battle. The veterans began to view themselves as a group distinct from the rest of society.
In Wisconsin, Lucius Fairchild, who had lost an arm at Gettysburg, became the state's first Civil War veteran governor, largely due to the support of former soldiers. Fairchild served for three terms during Reconstruction, an intensely political period following the war when veterans' spokesmen in the North affiliated themselves with the Republican party and its plan to reconstruct the ex-Confederate states. Union veterans in 1866 organized the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the nation's first mass veterans' organization.
The GAR dominated the affairs of the Union veterans' community until its decline in the twentieth century. GAR politicians, like their counterparts in the South, "waved the bloody shirt," promoting wartime memories and hatreds in order to garner local political support.
- WVM_070706_142.JPG: Fraternity, Charity, Loyalty: The GAR as a Social Organization:
-- "We drank from the same canteen." -- GAR slogan -- 1880-1888
The onset of a severe national depression in 1873 coincided with the diminished appeal of Bloody Shirt oratory. Veterans, like other citizens, concentrated their attention on making a living. Membership in the GAR dwindled as the Civil War seemed to recede in the public's memory.
But when GAR leaders turned their attention to promoting social, fraternal, and charitable opportunities, they struck an emotion chord among veterans and gave the organization a new life. During the 1880s, the GAR turned to organizing veterans' reunions on local, state, and national levels. These gatherings grew in scale and popularity, sometimes drawing tens of thousands of spectators. The Grand Review held in Milwaukee in 1880, for example, attracted 150,000 visitors, doubling the population of the city and filling every hotel in nearby Waukesha, Racine, and Oconomowoc.
Membership in the GAR rose dramatically to more than 400,000 in 1889. Increased membership brought increased influence. GAR support for the presidency of ex-Civil War General Benjamin Harrison produced substantial benefit when he signed the Pension Act of 1890. The Act allowed all Union veterans and their dependents to apply for a pension and was the most significant national social benefit program in American history up to the New Deal. Billions of dollars were transferred from the national treasury into the hands of former Union soldiers.
- WVM_070706_148.JPG: Memorialization, Patriotism, History:
The GAR's Educational Mission:
Even before the turn of the twentieth century, the GAR began focusing attention on what it called "the educational mission." The organization strove for:
- Preserve Civil War battlefields,
- Sponsor historical publications, including regimental histories and rosters,
- Encourage and institutionalize the Pledge of Allegiance,
- Place flags in schools,
- Celebrate Memorial Day as a holiday,
- Commission thousands of soldiers' and sailors' monuments around the nation.
The GAR worked hard to cultivate a nationalistic point of view among Americans, regardless of their national origins. The GAR upheld the American flag as a symbol of civic virtue, and went to great lengths to interpret American history for the school-aged population. "Flag books" were distributed yearly. The "patriotic editor" for the local newspaper usually held membership in the GAR, particularly in strongly pro-Union states like Wisconsin. The GAR was intimately involved in the civic life of many northern states, and even adopted a program of reconciliation with members of southern veterans' organizations such as the United Confederate Veterans, or UCV.
- WVM_070706_154.JPG: GAR walking sticks
- WVM_070706_164.JPG: Part of the "Belly of the Dragon" display
- WVM_070706_165.JPG: Life and Death in I Corps:
To understand the Vietnam War, it is essential to appreciate the significance of I Corps. Strategically located, it was only through or around its provinces that the North Vietnamese could move troops and material to South America. From bases in mountainous western reaches, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched attacks into the south and reorganized after battles.
Before American involvement, North Vietnam used waterways and roads crossing the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), as well as the formative Ho Chi Minh Trail in bordering Laos, to move supplies to the South. The South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) had little success stopping the flow. When the U.S. Marines landed in I Corps in 1965, the expanding American presence forced the North to deploy their own regular combat units to support operations.
The increase of NVA and Viet Cong units in I Corps resulted in a corresponding expansion of Marine, Army, and ARVN troop numbers as both sides wrestled for control of vital areas. The Air Force and Navy also added their weight to the contest. Seeking to shut down infiltration routes, American forces also deployed electronic monitoring systems and considered erecting a physical barrier along the DMZ.
While technology and firepower hindered Communist efforts, ongoing combat through I Corps demonstrated that the real fight would continue on the ground. In the end, sustained massive casualties failed to persuade the North to give up the war. Enemy soldiers and material moved endlessly to the front. In response to negative American public opinion against the war, Washington's war planners pursued an exit strategy through Vietnamization. Yet, only an American military presence could protect South Vietnam, and without it, the nation was doomed.
- WVM_070706_174.JPG: The Gunfighter:
As the Vietnam War escalated, the air war assumed a greater role in U.S. military strategy. Jet fighter-bombers like the F-4 Phantom provided support for ground operations, interdicted supply routes, and engaged in air-to-air combat with North Vietnamese MiGs. Operating out of South Vietnam, Thailand, and from aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, Phantom squadrons scored 145 kills during the war.
Milwaukee native Lance Sijan graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1965. Assigned to the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Da Nang, Sijan flew 66 missions with "The Gunfighters" as an F-4 weapons system officer.
On Sijan's 67th mission, disaster struck. During a November 9, 1967 bombing run near the Laotian border, defective ordnance caused Sijan's Phantom to explode. He survived a low-level ejection, but suffered a compound leg fracture, skull fracture, concussion, and a smashed hand.
Following an abortive rescue attempt, the gravely injured Sijan evaded capture in the jungle for 46 days. On December 25, 1967, an NVA convoy found Sijan lying in the road. His captors gave him some food and water, but no medical assistance. Determined to escape, Sijan overcame a lone sentry and, unable to walk, crawled into the jungle. The guards recaptured him within 12 hours.
On January 13, 1968, Sijan arrived at Hao Lo Prison -- the "Hanoi Hilton." Though in a rapidly declining state, he refused under torture to give any information except for name, rank, and serial number. When lucid, he encouraged his fellow POWs to develop and escape plan.
Sijan died from pneumonia on January 22, 1968. In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Sijan, citing his "extraordinary heroism and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty." Captain Lance Sijan remains the only Air Force Academy graduate to receive the award.
- WVM_070706_178.JPG: Over 58,000 Americans died during the Vietnam War. 1,160 of them called Wisconsin home. Of those, 530 perished in I Corps. This exhibit is dedicated to their service and sacrifice.
- WVM_070706_181.JPG: Vietnam-era Western Union telegram
- WVM_070706_184.JPG: Hearts and Minds:
-- "The struggle was in the rice paddles... in and among the people, not passing through, but living among them, night and day..." -- General Lew Walt, USMC, Retired.
Efforts by both sides to influence the people of South Vietnam varied from subtle to the extreme throughout the Vietnam War. The use of lectures and civic actions stood in high relief to executions and the destruction of entire villages in a bitter, ongoing struggle to win or coerce hearts and minds. Civilians and soldiers of both sides acted a targets of propaganda seeking to blur political lines, while bloody traps weighed heavily on the minds of American troops in the bush.
The Marines developed the Combined Action Program, one of the more successful civic efforts of the conflict. Between 1965 and 1971, 5,000 Marines and Navy Corpsmen lived in 114 villages throughout I Corps. Operating with as few as seven members, Combined Action Platoons provided technical and medical assistance as well as security for villagers. These Marines also instructed Vietnamese Popular Forces troops who were ultimately responsible for village defense.
- WVM_070706_201.JPG: Letters from the Front:
Before the days of e-mail and satellite phones, an air mail letter was the best way to communicate with friends and family back in the States. Depending on your location in Vietnam, it took anywhere from five days to two weeks for a letter to reach its destination. For many, letters were an exchange of information and not a conversation because so much had changed by the time the letters actually arrived.
The letters inside the mailbox provide a sense of the war, from combat and troop relations to the food and how soldiers missed the comforts of home. They are reproductions of actual letters from Vietnam. While some are hard to read, these letters highlight the human side of the war, the importance of friends and family, the trials and tribulations of heavy combat, and the triumphs and fears of these brave young Americans.
- WVM_070706_213.JPG: Firebase:
To establish some control over the diverse terrain of Vietnam, the U.S. military created the fire support base (FSB). Constructed on hills and ridges, firebase artillery provided support for infantry maneuvering within range of its cannon. The firebase also acted as an advance operations location for infantry and recon teams. Firebases allowed combat units to effectively shorten their range of operations and engage the enemy more frequently. Firebase artillery also provided harassment and interdiction fire on trails suspected of being frequented by the enemy.
Typically, a firebase contained a battery of 105mm or 155mm howitzers, mortars, and infantry. Some had long-range 175mm cannon, and, occasionally, an attack helicopter squadron. Estimates suggest that over 1,200 American firebases were situated in I Corps alone.
- WVM_070706_215.JPG: The Grunt:
The United States was at a crossroads in Vietnam in 1970. President Nixon's program of Vietnamization had been launched as American units began to return from Southeast Asia. At the same time, anti-war protesters continued to call for an immediate end to U.S. involvements. More than ever, the boys arriving in Vietnam brought with them the attitudes of America's youth. For those who became the grunts in I Corps and the rest of South Vietnam, the fighting continued unabated.
Ed Beauchamp of Milwaukee landed at Bien Hao Airfield in March 1970. Within a day, he was flown north to join his new unit, Company E, 4-31 Infantry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). Initially assigned to the mortar section, manpower shortages soon found Beauchamp carrying the M-60 machine gun for battalion recon. Working from LZ's "West" and "Siberia" in the double and triple canopy jungle of Quang Tin Province, the recon team operated as a blocking force, set ambushes, and conducted sweeps to locate the enemy. The unit also provided security for the villages of Hiep Duc and Son Ha in the area known as Death Valley. In September, Beauchamp returned to mortars for the remainder of his tour.
- WVM_070706_224.JPG: Home:
Base camp, firebase, LZ, the bush. Wherever you are is home. Farther back is better. A base beats a jungle foxhole -- except for some like "Mary Ann," Russell," or Lang Vei. They were all overrun and not back at all. The rockets are bad everywhere, so dig deep and pile on sandbags. Use whatever ammo crates and scrap metal you can find to build a nice bunker. Hang some posters on the walls and get a radio from the PX. Send off a letter or tape and hopefully get something back. Maybe you will get that package from home with some real food.
In the boonies, it is different. Red dirt turns to red mud; everything turns red. You can take the heat, but the cold is tough. The bugs are unbearable. Razor grass cuts through clothing and skin.
You unass from the slicks, secure the LZ, then start humping down the trails, knee deep in the paddles, under triple canopy jungle, over the ride, through the ville, looking for Charlie, all the while drinking bad water and eating canned rations from your dad's war. At least the fruit and pound cake are good. It would be nice to get out of these stinking clothes; get back to the bunker and rest.
- WVM_070706_227.JPG: Surviving the Dragon:
The Vietnam War officially ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973. When the United States left Vietnam, it left behind more than abandoned base camps and empty ammunition crates. The ruins of Hue City are still there. So are the jagged cliffs and isolated perches of the Rockpile. Ghosts still hover in the forests of My Lai. Even today, the difficult memories of Vietnam still remain. Veterans returned without fanfare or thank you, unsure of their place in the world. For some veterans, it has taken the 33 years since the war ended to fully understand the significance of Vietnam, with others still trying to find their way.
Each veteran's Vietnam experience was unique -- there is no one story. No other group of Vietnam veterans had such a diverse set of wartime experiences as those who served in I Corps. The terrain was as formidable as the enemy. I Corps veterans had to deal with the cool, rugged mountains and the damp, searing heat of the jungle, all the while fighting both the NVA and "Charlie." In the end, over 20,000 Americans lost their lives in I Corps; the rest made it home. They battled themselves, the enemy, the land, the policymakers and the dragon -- and survived. For veterans of I Corps, surviving the dragon became the greatest victory of all.
- WVM_070706_238.JPG: The Ridgerunner:
The Vietnam War was the first conflict to effectively utilize the helicopter. Helicopters allowed American forces to meet and defeat the enemy in the field, to move men from one point to another, bring in ammunition, hot meals, mail, supplies, and extract casualties. Gun ships, like the AH1-G Cobra, provided close air support for ground troops.
The mobility, speed, and firepower of the helicopter confused the Viet Cong and NVA in the early part of the war. However, as time progressed, the enemy learned to exploit the main drawback of the helicopter -- it needed a landing zone.
Sustained ground fire from small arms, anti-aircraft cannons, and rockets made life precarious for the low-flying crafts. Of the nearly 12,000 helicopters that flew during the Vietnam War, enemy forces destroyed almost half of them. The Army lost the majority of the helicopters, including over 3,000 UH-1 "Hueys." The Marine Corps, which utilized larger, heavier choppers like the CH-34 and CH-46, lost 441 helicopters. In I Corps alone, 649 helicopter pilots lost their lives.
Baraboo native Sergeant Gerald "Jerry" Paul served three tours as a crew chief and door gunner on a Marine Corps CH-34, experienced heavy combat and was shot down twice. His unit, HMM-163, adopted the "Evil Eyes" on the nose of their aircraft, a superstition taken from Vietnamese fishermen who thought the eyes warded off evil spirits and helped them find their way home. For his service, Paul earned a Navy Commendation Medal and an Air Medal with nineteen awards.
- WVM_070706_240.JPG: Khe Sanh:
Khe Sanh, the most remote military position in South Vietnam, was also one of the most isolated. It sat deep in a rugged, mountainous, and densely-vegetated jungle.
Khe Sanh was important to the American forces as a way of plugging a hole in the mountainous border with Laos that contained very few passes. U.S. forces saw the remote, sparsely populated area as a baited trap where attacking North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units could be destroyed by massive B-52 bombing raids. The NVA sought to "liberate" Khe Sanh while forcing Americans to deploy reinforcements, which could then be ambushed.
By November 1967, several NVA units moved toward Khe Sahn. When the battle erupted with the shelling of Khe Sahn Combat Base (KSCB) on 21 January 1968, 6,000 Marines suddenly found themselves surrounded by over 40,000 NVA regular soldiers. The situation quickly became desperate. The NVA strategy of annihilating American reinforcements failed. The Marine defenders stood firm without reinforcements, despite daily NVA shellings ,reduced rations (limited to one C-ration per day), loss of water for days at a time, rotting clothing, and a sense of isolation and vulnerability.
The Marines withstood 11,114 incoming rounds of artillery, mortar, and rockets, an average of 150 per day. In return, American forces dropped over 99,600 tons of bombs over 564 square miles and delivered 533 sorties of B-52s within three kilometers of American ground troops.
Casualties for the siege included 402 Americans killed and 2,249 medically evacuated. NVA casualties are estimated to have exceeded 10,000. Approximately 10,000 local Montagnard civilians perished during the period, making Khe Sahn the costliest battle of the Vietnam War.
Khe Sanh was a microcosm of the entire Vietnam War in that it was one of a number of instances that Washington planners abandoned a military effort because of highest level political concerns. Khe Sanh also reflected the general ambiguity of the war as both sides claimed victory. The Americans claimed victory over NVA forces that were either killed or left the battlefield. The North Vietnamese claimed victory over the Americans because they abandoned the fixed position at Khe Sahn.
- WVM_070706_243.JPG: January 28, 1968:
"As I walked past the bunker on the 26th Marine Regiment on Sunday, January 28, 1968, two photographers -- Dick Swanson of LIFE and John Reid of Sea Tiger -- asked if I could help them find good pictures. I said, "Come along with me and take some photos of the troops." I had planned worship services, and five Marines attended the first worship services: Ray Isham, Daniel Hobart, Ken Pac (with "Chicago Ill The Best Place Is Home" on his flak jacket), Jimmy Heath, and Charles Fox, all from 2nd Fireteam, 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, C Company, 1/26. Hill 1015 is above Pae's head; Hill 950 to the left of my shoulder. Despite very heavy shelling, none of us were wearing our helmets. We were in a different reality, a profound peace in the midst of intense battle."
-- By Reverend Ray W. Stubbe. ....
- WVM_070706_250.JPG: The Soundtrack of War:
American music could be heard everywhere in Vietnam. From transistor radios in the field tuned to Armed Forces Radio (AFVN) to a unit's resident guitar player, an ongoing yet varied soundtrack accompanied the Vietnam War. In the early years of the war, AFVN favored pop standards, steering clear of rock 'n roll. Yet, grunts clamored for music their friends at home to listen to. Eventually, AFVN played rock 'n roll, which could also be heard in Saigon nightclubs and on bootleg tapes smuggled in from San Francisco. Soul, rhythm and blues, and country music also found their way into the mix. Songs that reflected the opinions of many troops, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" and the Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" dominated the airwaves and soldiers' sing-a-longs. ....
- WVM_070706_252.JPG: Wartime photography, more than any other medium, communicated a silent, but powerful story of the Vietnam War. Combat images from AP and LIFE photographers brought the reality of war home. Vietnam became the first conflict in which soldiers had access to inexpensive, easy-to-use, and readily available cameras. American soldiers vigorously documented the things that mattered most of them -- their buddies, pets, bunkers, and equipment; go-go dancers and rock bands; and the beautiful Vietnamese landscape. Nearly every soldier who returned from Vietnam brought back a tray of slides or packets of snapshots. While some of the photos in this exhibit come from the AP, LIFE, and Stars and Stripes archives, many were taken by Wisconsin veterans and are held in the archives of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
- WVM_070706_267.JPG: Back to the GAR display
- WVM_070706_299.JPG: The Grand Review:
-- "The only national debt we can never pay is the debt we owe to the victorious Union soldiers." -- Banner suspended across Pennsylvania Avenue -- Washington D.C. -- May 23, 1865
Union veterans 200,000 strong marched through Washington on May 23 and 24, 1865, to celebrate their triumph in the Civil War. The column of troops was twenty-five miles long and took two days to pass before the reviewing stand. The Grand Review served as a rite of passage for the citizen-soldiers of the Union, most of whom eagerly anticipated their own transformation back into civilian life.
The Grand Review was America's first mass military parade. Never before had such a large force been gathered in one place in the United States. Crowds cheered, troops marched, and the Union army paraded off the stage of history. But the veterans carried with them an experience that would bind them in a unique brotherhood for the rest of their lives. Demobilization was completed with remarkable swiftness and, by June 1866, more than 1 million men had been mustered out of U.S. service.
The Grand Review served as a catharsis, exhibiting the size and power of the Union's volunteer army, while celebrating the fact that the huge force would soon evaporate. The Grand Review was a stirring moment in U.S. history, and veterans' organizations subsequently attempted to evoke its emotional appeal.
- WVM_070706_307.JPG: The Last Casualty:
-- "Now he belongs to the ages." -- Edwin M. Stanton -- Secretary of War -- April 15, 1865
Lincoln expected to reconcile the divided nation once the South had been defeated. In his Second Inaugural Message. Lincoln offered a hopeful vision of a reconstructed United States -- one in which a "new birth of freedom" would be coupled with "malice towards none and charity for all." But a pro-South extremist actor, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Lincoln before the war ended.
The President's death probably assured that his vision would not come true because few other Republicans felt as charitably toward the defeated South. And the bitterness that characterize the Reconstruction Era ensured that animosities would endure long after the last casualty of war. More than 620,000 soldiers lost their lives during the four years of conflict -- 360,000 Northerners and at least 260,000 Confederates. The Civil War caused nearly as many American deaths as all of the nation's other wars combined.
- WVM_070706_311.JPG: The Last Casualty
- WVM_070706_321.JPG: Parade Ground Soldiers: The Passing of the Old Militia:
-- "Not one man in twenty has any fair knowledge of the shooting qualities of his rife." -- Chandler P. Chapman -- Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Wisconsin -- 1884.
Interest in the military waned after the Civil War and Wisconsin government officials busied themselves with other matters. One of the biggest challenges was caring for the thousands of disabled state veterans who were no longer the responsibility of the Federal medical system. In addition, state military authorities turned their attention to tabulating statistical information about the war, dealing with stockpiles of surplus weapons and explosives, and verifying service records so that enlistment bounties could be adjusted and pension claims processed.
Both state and national government leaders were convinced the United States faced no serious military threats. Any future need for troops, they thought, would rekindle the "spirit of 1861" and lead to the outpouring of volunteers. In fact, two-thirds of the states did not bother to maintain even the semblance of a formal militia system.
Wisconsin, however, continued to maintain organized militia groups. Twenty-four companies, for example, registered with the Adjutant General's office in 1870. But these organizations were primarily social and political. They drilled and marched in gaudy uniforms with little in the way of state control or assistance other than the gift of obsolete Civil War weapons which the state was unable to store. These parade ground soldiers harkened back to a bygone era.
- WVM_070706_325.JPG: "Remember the Maine!"
The Spanish-American War lasted only four months and cost few casualties. But it had important effects upon the United States -- not least of which was the setting aside of sectional differences. Americans officially entered the war in 1898 to free Cuba from Spanish rule and to avenge the destruction of the battleship Maine, which the Spanish had supposedly blown up in Havana harbor. The United States won the war and took control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. With this easy acquisition of a "New Empire," the United States won recognition as a world power.
For Wisconsinites, the Spanish-American War meant testing the state National Guard as a reserve component of the regular Army. Wisconsin's Guardsmen mobilized in only twelve hours -- more efficiently than the forces of the regular Army. But the First Wisconsin Infantry never left the country; it spent the war in Florida plagued by disease and poor sanitation. The Second and Third Wisconsin Infantry regiments went to Puerto Rico where they saw limited combat and lost two men killed in action. Overall, disease claimed the lives of 134 Wisconsinites.
Despite the swift victory over Spain, the war highlighted certain inefficiencies within the American military system. State and national leaders became convinced that reforms must be made. At the state level, reformers encouraged greater Federal supervision and inspection of National Guard units and the setting of qualification standards for Guard officers. At the national level, reformers modernized the Army's organization and inefficient structure. (??)
- WVM_070706_329.JPG: Spanish-American War display
- WVM_070706_334.JPG: "On Wisconsin!" : Fields of Battle:
During the Civil War, Wisconsin's citizen-soldiers served in every Southern state except Florida, and as far west as the territories of Colorado and New Mexico. You can find some of the important events and places where Wisconsin troops played a role on the map you see here.
Adjutant Arthur MacArthur, father of General Douglas MacArthur, fought at Missionary Ridge, where he coined the phrase, "On Wisconsin!" Leading an unauthorized assault against the Confederate positions on the crest of Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga, Tennessee on November 24, 1863, MacArthur picked up the flag of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry and cried, "On Wisconsin!"
Looking upon MacArthur's action through his field glasses, General Grant told an aide to promote MacArthur if the attack succeeded and to court martial him if it failed. MacArthur, nineteen at the time, was successful. He was promoted and later awarded a Medal of Honor for the action.
- WVM_070706_339.JPG: Total Victory: Defeat of the South:
-- "By your patriotic devotion to your country in the hour of danger and alarm... you have maintained the supremacy of the Union and the Constitution, overthrown all armed opposition to the enforcement of the laws, and of the proclamation forever abolishing slavery... and opened the way to the rightful authorities to restore order and inaugurate peace on a permanent and enduring basis on every foot of American soil." -- Lieutenant General U.S. Grant -- To the Soldiers of the Armies of the United States -- June 2, 1863
The Civil War ended in total military victory for the Union as Southern forces surrendered unconditionally after April 1865. The South lay in ruins. Northern troops occupied substantial portions of the ex-Confederacy.
Mass armies of volunteer citizen-soldiers made the totality of the Union's achievement possible. The Union's victory greatly affected the thinking of postwar military planners. Penny-pinching Congressmen, for example, cut military spending drastically after 1866, believing that another volunteer army could be created quickly if another national emergency threatened the nation.
The citizen-soldiers of the North were demobilized with remarkable swiftness. The vast Union army simply evaporated after the South's defeat and its members returned to their farms, mills, and shops. In 1865, few could fully perceive the results of the war and the consequences of having a sizable community of veterans.
- WVM_070706_344.JPG: Total War By Sea:
-- "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" -- Vice Admiral David G. Farragut -- U.S. Navy Gulf Blockading Squadron - 1865
The North's superior industrial capacity heavily weighted the naval balance of power against the Confederacy, and U.S. naval forces played a key role in the Civil War. The Navy moved troops and supplies from northern depots to all theaters of war. It established a blockade of southern seaports which eventually kept the South's considerable foreign trade from market. Perhaps most importantly, the Navy dominated the river systems of the South, transforming them into military highways for advancing deep into the heart of the Confederacy.
The Union's naval effort was multifaceted. It took place on the high seas and on inland waterways, and it produced many different kinds of naval encounters. These ranged from dramatic engagements between single ships to fleet actions and shore bombardments. Less glamorous duties included the patrolling the Southern coast to strangle Confederate trade.
As many as 500 Wisconsinites served in the naval forces during the Civil War. The largest concentration of Wisconsin volunteers to serve aboard a ship occurred when a group of Second Wisconsin infantry-men transferred to the ironclad gunboat Mound City in 1862. In the fall of 1864, Navy Lt. William Cushing of Delafield led a daring and successful night raid against the formidable Confederate ironclad Albemarle off Plymouth, North Carolina. Cushing attacked and sank the enemy warship with a spar torpedo mounted on the prow of his diminutive steam launch.
- WVM_070706_346.JPG: Total War On Land:
-- "... We will destroy every obstacle; if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that seems to us proper... we will not cease till the end is attained..." -- Major General William Tecumseh Sherman - To the Commander-in-Chief -- September 17, 1863
Large and costly battles took place in 1863 such as Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga, but it was the relentless campaigns of 1864 that brought the South to the point of ruin. Throughout 1864-1865 the North pursued a policy of total war to crush the South. Major campaigns included the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, and Grant's campaign to take Richmond.
By 1864, Wisconsin citizen-soldiers sensed, and some understood, the momentousness of the situation in which they found themselves. Letters to friends and loved ones in Wisconsin reveal support for the growing harshness of the war upon the South. One private wrote approvingly from Atlanta that: "All the places between here and Chattanooga is to be burned to the ground and the Rail Roads to be torn up. Everything between here and Savannah will be destroyed."
Another soldier wrote, "We can see nothing but a vigorous prosecution of the war and a final Victory not far distant." Total war on land was a reality.
- WVM_070706_350.JPG: Total War: Unrelenting Campaigns Against the South:
-- "War is cruelty and you cannot refine it. We cannot change the hearts of those people of the South, but we can make war so terrible... and make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it." -- Major General William Tecumseh Sherman -- Army of the Tennessee -- 1864
The Civil War took place across thousands of miles of territory, on inland waters, and on the high seas. By 1864, it became clear to leading Union generals such as Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman that victory for the North would come about only if the entire South were subjugated and made to feel the harsh reality of war.
The Civil War, according to Grant, was a "people's war" wherein the populace of the South as well as the Confederate armies would have to be conquered. "We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people," explained General Sherman, recommending that the North, "make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war... I propose to demonstrate the vulnerability of the South, and make its inhabitants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms."
President Lincoln agreed, and instructed his generals to launch a series of unrelenting campaigns to defeat the South. After 1863, total war became the North's avowed strategy.
- WVM_070706_356.JPG: Prisoner of War Camps:
-- "... we had attempted to escape twice, had been captured, had been taken once and put in a dungeon and kept there sixteen days with very little to eat, with rats in abundance, and cockroaches, weighing anywhere from one to six pounds apiece falling on us... I didn't think we could be punished any more." -- Major Andrew M. Benson -- Commander of Massachusetts -- 1900
Many soldiers were captured during the course of the Civil War, but Union and Confederate officials regularly exchanged prisoners during the early part of the struggle. They used a parole system which morally obligated an exchanged soldier not to return to combat duties for a specified period of time.
Later in the war, the Union came to understand that if they did not return prisoners they would be materially injuring the Southern cause, since the South had fewer men to direct into the war effort. Thereafter, conditions at prisoner of war camps deteriorated. More than 80 per cent of the Union soldiers held captive at Andersonville, Georgia for instance, died.
The North established prisoner of war camps in many areas including Chicago and, briefly, at Camp Randall in Madison. In total, more Confederates die while being held captives in the North than did Union prisoners in the South.
- WVM_070706_363.JPG: Civil War Hospitals:
-- "The memory of the almost intolerable thirst and pain that followed [my being wounded], the being gathered up in a blanket by sympathizing comrades and friends, and transported as tenderly as possible in an ambulance to the deserted house taken as a field hospital... the floor was literally covered with improvised beds containing other specimens of shattered humanity." -- Lieutenant Edward Ferguson -- Commandery of Wisconsin -- 1888
As great as the losses on the battlefield were during the Civil War, the losses to disease were even greater. Although significant advances in surgery were made during the war, some doctors were poorly informed and provided inadequate treatment to sick and wounded soldiers.
Physicians had the skills to administer anesthetics and to amputate limbs. But internal medicine was in its infancy during the early 1860s, and doctors had not yet discovered the germ theory of disease. Surgeons operated in field hospitals without even washing their hands between patients, unknowingly contributing to the onset of gangrene infections. Malaria, typhus, and especially dysentery, caused by or associated with unsanitary conditions and insects, accounted for thousands of casualties.
Indeed, of the 12,216 Wisconsin soldiers who died during the Civil War, 8.022 (nearly two-thirds) were lost to disease. Some soldiers felt that hospitals should be avoided if at all possible, since diseases seemed to be most readily acquired at health care facilities.
- WVM_070706_364.JPG: The Emancipation Proclamation: "Henceforward and Forever Free":
-- "Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history... The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation... In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth." -- President Abraham Lincoln -- Annual Message to Congress -- December 1, 1862
President Lincoln used the occasion of Antietam to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. The Proclamation declared that the slaves in the Southern states would be "henceforward and forever free." By this act, Lincoln transformed the war into a moral crusade for human freedom rather than simply a conflict to restore the Union as it had been in 1860. President Lincoln also urged Blacks to volunteer for service in the Union army. More than 186,000 Blacks had joined the Union forces by 1865.
- WVM_070706_368.JPG: Our Tattered Flags:
-- "The sun... rose upon one of those scenes of suffering and anguish which humble the pride of man by the exhibition of his weakness and cruelty. The bloody cornfield was a tragic sight. It had been fought over several times. The dead all lay as they fell... and so thickly strewn that for rods one could have walked on dead bodies." -- First Lieutenant Edwin E. Bryant -- Third Wisconsin Infantry -- 1891
Five Wisconsin regiments participated in the Battle of Antietam, four actively. These included the Second, Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin Infantry, all of which belonged to the Iron Brigade. The Iron Brigade experienced over 40 per cent losses at Antietam.
The Third Wisconsin Infantry also fought in the Cornfield. Its losses amounted to 59 per cent. The Fifth Wisconsin Infantry was assigned to the reserve during the battle.
When President Lincoln visited Antietam after the battle, he reviewed the men of the Iron Brigade. According to one Wisconsin soldier, the President, touched by the worn appearance of the Wisconsin troops, "bowed low in response to the salute of our tattered flags."
- WVM_070706_372.JPG: A Contest of Casualties:
-- "... every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain laid in rows precisely as they had stood... It was... a bloody, dismal battlefield." -- Major General Joseph Hooker -- First Corps -- Army of the Potomac -- November 8, 1862
Outmoded tactics and modern weaponry combined to produce high casualty rates in many Civil War battles. The Battle of Antietam was especially gruesome, however, because the Union forces attacked frontally, unsupported, and in piecemeal fashion against a resolute, well-positioned foe who also happened to be very well led. In the Civil War, sheer courage rarely prevailed over massed firepower.
- WVM_070706_376.JPG: Cameras at Antietam:
-- "The dead of the battle-field came up to us very rarely, even in dreams. We see the list in the morning paper at breakfast, but dismiss its recollection with the coffee. ... Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to use the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it." -- Review of Mathew B. Brady's "The Dead of Antietam" -- October 10, 1862
Although the camera had been introduced well prior to the outbreak f the Civil War, it was the war that provided a broad new market for photographs. Many Civil War soldiers had their portraits taken. With Antietam, the battlefield itself became a subject for the photographer's lens.
Antietam and its horrors attracted the attention of photographers associated with Mathew Brady's firm, which operated studios in New York and Washington. Brady employed itinerant photographers who, within days of the tragic battle, took nearly one hundred views of the soldiers and animals killed on the battlefield. "The Dead of Antietam," an exhibit put on at Brady's studio in October, shocked thousands of viewers. It brought Antietam's horrors graphically into public focus and contributed to Brady's fame.
- WVM_070706_380.JPG: The Minie-Ball: A Rifle Bullet Creates a Revolution:
-- "... the musket is the queen of weapons..." -- General Thomas Williams - Commandery of Wisconsin -- 1891
When French Army Captain Claude E. Minie developed a new type of bullet in 1849, he probably did not foresee the dramatic effects that his invention would have on warfare. But Minie's bullet, known commonly as the Minie-ball, allowed soldiers to fire rifle-muskets upon enemy forces at greater ranges and with much greater accuracy than the smoothbore firearms used since the eighteenth century.
The increased range and accuracy of Civil War rifle-muskets enhanced the defensive power of rifle-armed infantrymen. Massed frontal assaults against infantry became suicidal. After the introduction of rifle-muskets, the cavalry was forced to the fringes of major actions and artillery was driven to the rear and flanks of a battlefield because the gun crews and horsemen now presented such easy targets. In the latter stages of the war, both sides dug extensive trench systems to provide cover from the deadly power of improved rifles and bullets. This foreshadowed the trench warfare of World War I.
The infantryman armed with a rifle-musket dominated virtually all of the important engagements of the Civil War and brought citizen-soldiers, who were primarily infantrymen, into the forefront of military activities. The coupling of mass infantry tactics, inherited from the days of Napoleon, with the modern rifle-musket contributed to the tremendous battlefield casualties of the Civil War.
- WVM_070706_383.JPG: The Weapons of War:
Advances in technology dramatically increased the effectiveness of small arms during the Civil War. improved weaponry increased the rate, range, and deadliness of rifle fire. But basic infantry tactics and formations had changed only slightly since the eighteenth century. The new rifle muskets, with an effective range of 400-500 yards, played havoc with these antiquated battlefield formations.
Other weapons introduced in the Civil War era included the first practical breech-loading arms, some of which used self-contained metallic ammunition, and repeating firearms of several types. In all, some eighty-one different patterns of small arms and ammunition were issued to members of the Union army. For army quartermasters, this created nightmarish problems and supply and logistics.
- WVM_070706_386.JPG: The Battle of Antietam: A Landscape Turned Red:
"About seventy-five yards in front was a rail fence, and beyond that the memorable cornfield, that day harvested with bullets and canister, and drenched with blood..."
-- First Lieutenant Edwin E. Bryant -- Third Wisconsin Infantry -- 1891
The Battle of Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, marked the single bloodiest day in American history. By nightfall, witnesses reported that the landscape appeared to have turned red. Total casualties numbered more than 25,000, of whom almost 5,000 were killed. Wisconsin's citizen-soldiers played an important role in the day's terrible events.
Shortly after dawn, Wisconsin's famed Iron Brigade initiated the Battle of Antietam when its four regiments swept through David R. Miller's cornfield in a double line of battle, launching an attack up on two divisions of Stonewall Jackson's corps. Casualties were staggering on both sides; the Iron Brigade lost over 40 per cent of its fighting men dead or wounded. The field which the Iron Brigade charged has forever been known as The Cornfield.
- WVM_070706_390.JPG: The Line of Battle: Relying on Rank and File:
Citizen-soldiers spent much of their time in camp practicing how to maneuver while arranged in lines and columns, technically known as ranks and files. These linear formations were the basis of the stylized military tactics inherited from the wars of the Napoleonic Era in Europe.
In theory, soldiers organized in double lines could aim and fire a steady series of volleys at their opponents. Even while advancing, one line could pelt the enemy with a hail of lead while the other line reloaded. These linear formations were practical when using weapons which were slow to reload and inaccurate, and when troops were disciplined. But linear tactics often broke down in the heat of battle due to panic, confusion, poor communication, and obscuring clouds of smoke.
The traditional line of battle was a horizontal array best suited to formalized warfare on the relatively open terrain of Europe. In America, however, combat more often occurred on irregular terrain covered with brush and woods. As a result, Civil War soldiers learned to march in dense columns, to deploy rapidly into line of battle once combat was joined, and when circumstances dictated, to improvise movements under fire. The key to such tactics was discipline and drill. After endless practice and years of experience in the field, citizen-soldiers eventually mastered these complex maneuvers.
- WVM_070706_392.JPG: The Tedium of Camp:
"The life a soldier in the field is so monotonous, that days of the week, dates of the month, and even the year is nearly forgotten."
-- Sergeant George W. Driggs -- Eighth Wisconsin Infantry -- June 27, 1862
Exciting local send-offs behind the, citizen-soldiers looked forward to a speedy end of the war. One or two battles, they thought, and the conflict would end. The reality of the Civil War, however, was that most troops spent considerable time encamped. They counted the long tedious hours waiting for war to happen. And enduring this boredom had its dangers. Outbreaks of disease became frequent whenever the armies went into quarters where large aggregation of troops, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands, had gathered.
How do you think Wisconsin's citizen-soldiers fought boredom while waiting for the war? Most read newspapers and kept in touch with home by subscribing to their local news journals. Some became correspondents, providing information about the war to the editors of their hometown papers. Some soldiers kept diaries, and many maintained an active correspondence with family members and friends. Checkers, chess, cards, dice, and a variety of other pastimes helped while away the hours as well.
- WVM_070706_397.JPG: Hardtack and Coffee:
"'Tis the song of the soldier, weary, hungry, and faint,
Hardtack, hardtack, come again no more;
Many days have I chewed you and uttered no complaint..."
-- :Hard Times" -- A Union army ditty.
Army officials prescribed a generous food allowance for Northern citizen-soldiers. But the army supply system occasionally broke down under the stresses of wide-ranging mobile warfare. Local conditions, enemy activity, or movement through a campaign all affected the type and quantity of military fare.
Army rations made lasting impressions on the minds of Wisconsin soldiers. Food packing techniques of the 1860s sometimes failed to preserve meats. Even the tasteless but durable hardtack crackers, which provided the stable of the soldier's died, sometimes spoiled or became infested with insects. Beans and rice provided the vegetable ration, unless troops purchased fresh produce from local vendors or, as became common, they chose to pillage the southern countryside. Sugar was one of life's luxuries, but as one Wisconsin soldier from Racine recalled, "it was our ration of coffee which we wanted more than anything else."
- WVM_070706_398.JPG: Training for War: The Making of Citizen-Soldiers:
-- "It is trite saying that at the outbreak of war we had the best raw material for a great army that the world has ever seen... The raw material was perfect, but it must be confessed that it was 'raw', very raw." -- Captain G.W. Burnell, Commandery of Wisconsin, 1891
Volunteers had only two to six weeks of training to make the transition from citizen to soldier. The training was rudimentary and did little more than acquaint the men with the fundamentals of military drill and maneuver.
Camp Randall, located in Madison on the site of the University's present football stadium, was the largest of several training camps in Wisconsin. No Wisconsin unit at any camp trained with greater regimental-sized formations of about a thousand men, despite the fact that Civil War combat operations were invariably carried out by much larger units.
- WVM_070706_401.JPG: Unprepared for War:
-- "Whatever aid, in men and money, may be required to enforce the authority of the Federal Government... we are ready to devote our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors in upholding the Union and the Constitution." -- Joint Resolution, Wisconsin State Legislature, January 8, 1861
The Civil War proved to be the largest and most difficult conflict in the history of the United States. But on the eve of that crisis, the United States military was totally unprepared for war.
In 1861, the U.S. Army contained only 16,000 men. They were stationed in seventy-nine isolated posts across 2,000 miles of frontier, mostly west of the Mississippi River. The Navy had forty-two vessels of all types, but only twelve ships were immediately available for duty. No plans had been formulated for national mobilization. Nothing resembling a general staff to guide and coordinate military activities existed. And when the war broke out on April 12, 1861, more than one-third of the officer corps had resigned to join the Confederacy.
The Federal government turned to the states for help. Federal authorities expected that the militias of Wisconsin and other northern states would provide the forces necessary to quickly subdue the rebellious South. But most existing militia units functioned as political or social organizations rather than as effective military forces, and less than half of Wisconsin's militia units made themselves available for service. The governor, therefore, authorized the raising of additional volunteer companies.
- WVM_070706_409.JPG: Unparalleled Growth Divides a Nation:
-- "One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended... In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war." -- President Abraham Lincoln, Address to House and Senate, July 4, 1861
The United States experienced phenomenal growth during the first half of the nineteenth century. Population increased 400 per cent during that period, while the physical size of the country quadrupled. Cities like Chicago and Milwaukee sprouted seemingly from nowhere. Railroads, steamboats, and canals linked burgeoning urban centers to established cities and undeveloped hinterlands.
As an industrial economy emerged in the North, small-scale family farms spread across the region and European immigrants flocked to the new land. In the South, on the other hand, cotton was king. Large plantations there depended upon the forced labor of four million slaves to produce cash crops like rice, tobacco, and cotton -- a particularly valuable export. Smaller farmers in the South produced similar stapes and strove to become plantation owners.
After 1850, a bitterly divisive sectional controversy erupted over the question of the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories west of the Mississippi River. Abraham Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery, and his election as President of the United States in 1860 caused the first of eleven southern states of secede from the Union.
- WVM_070706_411.JPG: A Call to Arms:
-- "Now, therefore, I Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States... have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several states of the Union." -- President Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation, April 15, 1861
At the beginning of the war, Americans answered the call to arms willingly. Patriotic enthusiasm ran high and volunteers were plentiful. In Wisconsin, for example, so many men volunteered in the spring of 1861 that Governor Alexander W. Randall delayed accepting over fifty volunteer companies.
But as the war dragged on, recruitment became more difficult. A variety of techniques, ranging from a draft to the promise of cash bounties, were used to attract manpower into the state units. This combination of incentives and threats kept enlistments up.
Wisconsin spent $12 million to raise troops for the war; $8 million of which was raised by counties and municipalities. Total expense amounted to some $150 for every man, woman, and child in the state.
-- "The Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed." -- President Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861
- WVM_070706_415.JPG: The War Against Microbes....
Prior to the twentieth century, disease was the major wartime killer. In the Civil War, two soldiers died from disease for every one killed in action. In the Spanish-American War, the rate was an astounding seven to one. Poor camp sanitation and ignorance of how germs were transmitted contributed to the incidence of epidemics. With American military commitments to tropical areas increasing and with the construction of the Panama Canal underway, the U.S. Army became involved in disease research, investigating the biological causes of dysentery, malaria, and typhoid fever.
The Army created special boards to study tropical diseases. Army doctor Walter Reed demonstrated the mosquitoes spread yellow fever. The adoption of simple camp sanitation and anti-mosquito measures eventually saved countless lives.
- WVM_070706_418.JPG: Joining the Imperial Club:
The Filipino people had been fighting to rid themselves of the tyrannical Spanish government prior to 1898. When the Spanish-American War ended, the Filipinos expected the Americans to withdraw, leaving the islands independent. President William McKinley, however, decided to replace Spanish rule with that of the United States. The President's decision was strongly influenced by spokesmen of elite groups who favored navalism, colonies, expanded trade, an outlet for missionary activity, and, especially, for the United States to assume its "Manifest Destiny" by becoming a world power complete with overseas territories. After the war, the U.S. took control of Spain's colonial possessions, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; as well as other Pacific Islands such as Hawaii.
Filipino and American forces first clashed in February 1899, sparking an ugly colonial war that lasted until 1902 in its main stage. Guerilla tactics subsequently introduced by the Filipinos foreshadowed later U.S. military activities in Asia. American troops did not finally subdue the fierce Moro tribesmen of the southern Philippines until 1915. Sometimes referred to as an insurrection, the Philippine War became America's first Asian conflict, with costs and casualties greatly exceeding those of the Spanish-American War.
- WVM_070706_420.JPG: The Great White Fleet: Promoting the Empire:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt, September 2, 1901
New Empire thinkers equated American prosperity with possession of overseas colonial territories. The key to national power and security, according to Alfred Thayer Mahan, a leading imperialist theoretician, was a strong Navy. Mahan argued eloquently for the construction of a vast fleet of the most heavily armed and armored vessels, which soon became known as battleships.
The United States authorized the construction of its first battleship in 1890. To popularize naval expansion, the huge ships were named after states including Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Within twenty years, the United States had a fleet of twenty-five battleships and some called upon the nation to build forty-eight.
To demonstrate the arrival of the United States as a world power, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered sixteen battleships on an historic 46,000-mile around-the-world cruise in 1907. Roosevelt was particularly interested in impressing Japan, since the American colony in the Philippines lay very close to the Island Empire and diplomatic relations with Japan were at that moment strained. The ships were known as the Great White Fleet because of the heat-reflecting white paint applied to their hulls, and their voyage was immensely successful. Clearly, America's New Empire would be defended by its New Navy, including the 11,000-ton battleship Wisconsin (BB-9).
- WVM_070706_503.JPG: Billy Mitchell's uniform
- WVM_070706_507.JPG: Billy Mitchell: Prophet of Air Power:
-- "...the advent of air power has completely changed all former systems of national defense... Neither armies or navies can exist unless the air is controlled over them." -- William Mitchell, 1925
While diplomats concentrated on limiting naval arms and engaging in treaty-making exercises as a means to assure world peace during the 1920s, Brigadier General William Mitchell of Milwaukee challenged prevailing views on defense matters. Mitchell, an air power enthusiast, defined orders by publicizing the theory that airplanes had antiquated traditional concepts of military operations.
While Mitchell demonstrated that aircraft armed with bombs could sink battleships, he was overzealous in arguing that military aircraft rendered surface warships as well as land forces obsolete. Mitchell's outspoken views drew a hostile reaction from Army and Navy officials, and the Wisconsin native was court-martialed. But many years later, Congress awarded Mitchell a posthumous Medal of Honor for his ideas.
- WVM_070706_510.JPG: Armistice: The Eleventh Hour:
Realizing that the war was lost, a German peace delegation signed an armistice agreement ending the European struggled at 11 o'clock on November 11, 1918. Reaction to the Armistice among the troops was subdued. Many doughboys were stunned by the eerie quiet on the Western Front, and it took several days before celebrations erupted. And despite the Armistice, more than 14,000 Americans, including some fro Wisconsin, were still fighting in North Russia and Siberia -- tragic sideshows of the European war.
As in earlier wars, American leaders rapidly demobilized the mass army of citizen-soldiers. Those who had served in France could take home a helmet and a gas mask along with a uniform, a pair of shoes, a coat, and a $60 bonus.
- WVM_070706_556.JPG: The Seeds of Discontent: The Mexican Revolution and the United States:
By the dawn of the twentieth century, 3 per cent of Mexico's population owned 95 per cent of the nation's arable land. In the northern Mexican state of Durango, ten families owned 97 per cent of the grazing and farm lands. This stark imbalance between rich and poor contributed to the new century's first major social revolution, when Mexicans overthrew their long-established dictator in 1911.
Many revolutionaries in northern Mexico rallied around Francisco "Pancho" Villa, a cowboy turned bandit. In southern Mexico, radicals joined the forces of Emiliana Zapata, a horse buyer. Both Villa and Zapata captured the public's imagination through their charismatic and successful leadership. Eventually, they allied, hoping for U.S. recognition.
A host of other regional leaders battled to control the southern republic as well, and American President Woodrow Wilson felt compelled to intervene in Mexican affairs. Already deeply involved with Mexico's economy, American investors controlled more than $1 billion worth of holdings, representing nearly 25 per cent of America's total foreign investment and to bring his own concept of democracy to Mexico. But Mexicans viewed Wilson's activities as meddlesome, particularly after American military forces occupied Vera Cruz in 1914.
- WVM_070706_559.JPG: Long Days in the Hot Sun: Patrolling the Mexican Border:
Wisconsin Guard units took up positions near San Antonio, Texas, in July 1916. For the next nine months, the Guard marched and drilled in monotonous field exercises. Although they witnessed no battles and suffered not a single fatality, border service helped shape the Guard into a hardened and disciplined force.
Clad in their heavy wool uniforms, members of the Wisconsin National Guard arrived in Texas during an unusually hot summer. Because Wisconsin cavalrymen refused to sell their horses to the Federal government for less than market value, replacement horses had to be found and trained. The entire Wisconsin Guard had only sixteen machine guns, French-designed Benet-Mercier types, nicknamed "Ben-As." These weapons were cumbersome and complicated. Each had more than 180 parts!
The highlight of the Mexican border service for Wisconsin troops came at the end of September 1916, when the state's forces, along with thousands of other troops, undertook a week-long march from San Antonio to Austin with full equipment. Motor vehicles and horses transported food and water as the division-sized column moved through the dust. By early 1917, the border crisis began to calm while American relations with Germany worsened.
- WVM_070706_564.JPG: Across the Rio Grande: The U.S. Punitive Expedition:
President Woodrow Wilson's moralistic attitude towards Mexican diplomacy, best described in his own phrase as "teaching those South Americans to elect good men," produced resentment toward the United States. Wilson believed that it was his mission to help Mexican's establish a constitutional government responsive both to the needs of its people and open to American direction.
After Wilson extended formal diplomatic recognition to Venustiano Carranza and the Constitutionalist Party in late 1915, Pancho Villa felt betrayed by the United States. In early 1916, Villa's forces held up a train in northern Mexico and executed sixteen Americans who were aboard. Shortly thereafter, Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, burning the town and killing nineteen more Americans.
Following Villa's raid, President Wilson ordered Brigadier General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing to retaliate by leading a punitive expedition into Mexico. Some 6,675 American regulars crossed the Rio Grande in an attempt to capture Villa. But while Pershing's command traveled deep into Mexico, Villa attacked the Texas community of Glen Springs. Enraged, Wilson called out the National Guard. By June 1916, nearly 100,000 Guard members had taken up positions along the international frontier. Mexico and the United States teetered on the brink of war.
- WVM_070706_566.JPG: Meanwhile, Back In Wisconsin:
-- "The Wisconsin troops as a whole were better equipped for immediate field service than were the troops of any other state." -- Major General T.H. Barry, October 19, 1916
While tensions mounted along the Mexican border, things back home had been changing for the citizen-soldier. Federal officials enacted a series of laws that reformed the National Guard of Wisconsin and other states, subjecting citizen-soldiers to increased central control and standardization. The Militia Act of 1903 institutionalized the role of the National Guard as the nation's first line of reserves. By 1916, Federal laws had made it possible to use the Guard as a reserve force wherever national policy might take it. Upon enlistment, Guard members now took an oath to serve both national and state authorities.
Wisconsin Progressives enacted additional laws reinforcing Federal reforms. For example, realistic field exercises began at the Military Reservation near Camp Douglas, while inspections of local armories became more frequent.
When President Wilson mobilized the National Guard for service along the Mexican border, he could be confident that the 4,288 Wisconsin Guard members sent to Texas were among the best in the nation. The First, Second, and Third regiments of Wisconsin Infantry, one field hospital unit, two troops of cavalry, and one battery of field artillery constituted the state's contribution to Mexican border service.
- WVM_070706_572.JPG: Reluctant Belligerent: Wisconsin Enters World War I:
-- 'Wisconsin is and always has been loyal to the Union, and there never was any justification for the suspicions created... about Wisconsin's attitude... The Spirit of the 1860s is still among us. The love of country and the flag is strong among our people." -- Governor Emanuel L. Philipp, 1919
Most of Wisconsin's Progressives steadfastly supported American neutrality in World War I. In fact, Wisconsin's Senator Robert M. La Follette led the opposition to increasing the size of the American military establishment in the years before American entry into the European War. La Follette and like-minded political leaders opposed President Wilson and, it seemed, all efforts with even the appearance of hostility towards Germany. As a result, many questioned the loyalty of Wisconsin when Congress declared war.
But despite the fact that 30 per cent of Wisconsin's population had been born in Germany or Austria, and despite the fact that nine of the state's eleven Congressional representatives along with its senior U.S. Senator had opposed the joint resolution of war with Germany, Wisconsinites responded willingly to the call to arms. Indeed, Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to complete the registration of its military-aged population, registering more than 218,000 men in a single day. By 1918, a total of 584,559 Wisconsinites had registered for the draft.
- WVM_070706_575.JPG: Mobilizing the Nation: The United States Girds for War:
-- "It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the Nation..." -- President Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress, April 2, 1917
During the first years of the twentieth century, many Americans believed that civilization had progressed beyond the need for war. And when war broke out in Europe in 1914, they hoped to remain neutral. But events, not least among them Germany's unrestricted use of submarines and the sinking of U.S. merchant ships, turned the tide of public opinion. In April 1917, Congress declared war against Germany. "The world must be made safe for democracy," President Wilson explained as he spelled out the tremendous task that lay ahead.
How could the U.S. mobilize and equip its armies in time to prevent the Allies from being overrun? It's true that the U.S. had been supplying France and England with good and other materials for years; but few actual war industries existed for the mass production of modern military aircraft, machine guns, artillery, or even a standard army rifle. The regular Army had only 127,588 men. The National Guard added another 181,620 troops. But bold action was required if the United States was to play a major role in Europe.
And so the Selective Service was born. The Selective Service Act of 1917 obligated military-aged men to register at a local draft board in their own communities. Federal officials coordinated the 4,648 boards, which operated in a decentralized manner on the state level. Eventually, the Federal government equipped and mobilized more than 4 million men. Two million soldiers divided into forty-two divisions were sent to France in time to make a difference.
- WVM_070706_580.JPG: Forging the AEF: The American Expeditionary Forces:
-- :"Lafayette, we are here!" -- Lieutenant Colonel C.E. Stanton, AEF, Paris, France, July 4, 1917
The cry "Vive les Americains!" rang out from the lips of a million Parisians when they greeted the first contingent of the AEF, the American Expeditionary Forces. As the U.S. troops marched into the city on July 4, 1917, crowds rained flowers on the soldiers whom they hoped would break the long stalemate on the Western Front.
Not since the Civil War had the United States fielded an army approaching the size of the AEF. And never before had the United States formed an army the way the AEF was formed. Rather than taking charge of largely volunteer units formed under the authority of the individual states, the Federal government attempted to amalgamate the nation's citizen-soldiers into the organizational structure of the U.S. Army. Rather than being a member of the Third Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, for example, a soldier from whatever locale became a standardized "doughboy." While a greatly enlarged U.S. Navy helped protect ships transporting troops and war materiel to France, it was the creation, organization, equipping, training and leading of this huge new army that occupied the attention of the American leaders during 1917-1918.
- WVM_070706_584.JPG: A No Man's Land on the Western Front:
-- "Those who weren't scared, weren't there." -- Private Clayton Slack, AEF, Medal of Honor recipient, Heywood, WI, 1964 interview
While battles erupted in numerous areas during World War I, it was on the Western Front in France and Belgium that the struggle took on its most titanic and tragic cost. The Western Front stretched 470 miles from Switzerland to the English Channel. There, trench warfare locked belligerents in a costly stalemate. Massive artillery barrages preceded infantry attacks designed to achieve and breakthrough, and churned the ground into a "No Man's Land" of moon-like barrenness. Soldiers charged by the tens of thousands against well-positioned machine guns ringed by barbed wire entanglements, sometimes in the face of poison gas. The futility of this kind of warfare was grimly predictable.
America tipped the scales in favor of England and France. By the fall of 1918, the AEF had become large enough to take the lead in major efforts to break the German line in France. The Meuse-Argonne campaign... was the culmination of the American war effort. it continued through forty days of bloody, hammering attacks and ended with a spectacular breakthrough. American inexperience and a skillful German defense contributed to the high losses of the AEF, where some 26,277 Americans were killed and 95,786 were wounded. The Meuse-Argonne remains the largest battle in American history, involving more than 1,200,000 citizen-soldiers.
- WVM_070706_588.JPG: The Doughboys:
-- "... this country has but one army, the Army of the United States." -- General Peyton C. March, July 31, 1918
American divisions were twice as large as those of the European powers. With 28,500 doughboys in each, they became known as square divisions. And to offset the anonymity and standardization of the new Army, citizen-soldiers of the AEF chose nicknames for their divisions and eventually adopted distinctive shoulder patches to display their new identities. The 32nd Division, based on the pre-war Wisconsin and Michigan National Guard, became the "Red Arrow Division." The 42nd Division, which had absorbed several Wisconsin units, became the "Rainbow Division." The 1st Division, which also contained groups of Wisconsinites, became the "Big Red One".
Of the 122,215 Wisconsinites drafted or enlisted during the First World War, some served in new divisions or in existing regular Army units. Others served in divisions which had been created the National Guard of states such as Illinois. Regardless of the different shoulder patches they wore, however, the doughboys made up the first mass national Army in American history.
- WVM_070706_590.JPG: Various signs:
Promoting the Empire:
-- "Speak softly and carry and big stick." -- President Theodore Roosevelt, September 2, 1901
New Empire thinkers equated American prosperity with possession of overseas colonial territories. The key to national power and security, according to Alfred Thayer Mahan, a leading imperialist theoretician, was a strong Navy. Mahan argued eloquently for the construction of a vast fleet of the most heavily armed and armored vessels, which soon became known as battleships.
The United States authorized the construction of its first battleship in 1890. To popularize naval expansion, the huge ships were named after states including Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Within twenty years, the United States had a sleet of twenty-five battleships and some called upon the nation to built forty-eight.
To demonstrate the arrival of the United States as a world power, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered sixteen battleships on an historic 46,000-mile around-the-world cruise in 1907. Roosevelt was particularly interested in impressing Japan, since the American colony in the Philippines lay very close to the Island Empire and diplomatic relations with Japan were at that moment strained. The ships were known as the Fleet because of the heat-reflecting white paint applied to their hulls, and their voyage was immensely successful. Clearly, America's New Empire would be defended by its New Navy, including the 11,000-ton battleship Wisconsin (BB-9).
Fearful New Weapons: Harnessing the Industrial Revolution:
The United States had few modern weapons when war broke out in Europe. It had only twenty-one military aircraft in 1915 and fewer than 100 trucks. The entire American Army possessed a mere 1,500 machine guns, with each regiment of infantry having only four! By 1918, however, each American regiment had 250 machine guns. In fact, automatic weapons production boomed in the United States, to the point that American factories were producing more of such weapons each day than existed in the entire Army before the war.
But it was not only U.S. resources that were harnessed during World War I. All the major participants in the conflict came to control and regulate the industrial outputs of their societies to further the war effort. And as a result, the intensity of combat and its casualties dwarfed all previous conflicts.
Machine guns, for example, enabled belligerents to mow down their opponents on a scale never witnessed before. Other fearful new weapons included mass-produced artillery, tanks, poison gas, submarines, and military aircraft. It was the deadly power of these new weapons that contributed to the gruesome stalemate on the Western Front.
- WVM_070706_595.JPG: Aces High: War in a New Dimension:
The United States occupied fourteenth place in the ranks of world military aviation, just behind Brazil, when World War I erupted. After the United States entered the war, it was forced to make use of European combat aircraft because American industry could not produce sophisticated airframes and engines quickly enough.
But, by the end of 1918, some 217,000 Americans were serving in various capacities with air services. A t least fifty-five American pilots became "aces" after shooting down at least five enemy aircraft. Wisconsin was credited with supplying 161 flying officers during the war. On of them, Rodney W. Williams, of Waukesha, became an ace. Williams flew a British Sopwith Camel fighter, like the replica above. Fighter planes and pilots were portrayed in a romantic fashion during World War I even though photo reconnaissance aircraft far exceeded the importance of the glamorized fighters.
- WVM_070706_603.JPG: Enormous Casualties: The Terrible Cost of War:
While medical care during the early twentieth century had made great strides when compared to the practices of the Civil War era, it could do little to prevent the tremendous casualties of the First World War. Despite improved sanitation and use of antiseptics, American casualties totalled 48,909 killed in action, 2,913 missing, and 237,135 wounded. In addition, a major flu epidemic in 1918-1918 caused another 46,992 deaths among AEF members. And significant as these losses are, they pale in comparison to those of the European combatants, who lost nearly 9 million men killed in action and more than 22 million wounded. The Great War had literally consumed a generation.
And there were other casualties as well. The war effort cost Americans some of their cherished civil liberties. Congress approved the Espionage Act in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918. Together, these laws enacted harsh penalties for those convicted of "false statements" and forbade Americans to "utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal... language about the... Government or... military... of the United States."
But perhaps the greatest casualty of the war was the illusion that it would "make the world safe for democracy" or be "the war to end war." Americans rejected the harsh Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany and refused to join the League of Nations. In effect, Americans sought to turn away from the new world order they had helped to create. During the period which historians call the Roaring Twenties and well into the period of Great Depression, grave international problems remained unsolved. With good reason, the great English historian and politician Winston S. Churchill characterized the period from 1914 through 1945 as the "Thirty Years War with the twenty years truce."
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- Wikipedia Description: Wisconsin Veterans Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum, located on Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, is dedicated to the soldiers of the state of Wisconsin. The museum is composed of two award-winning galleries that chronicle the history of Wisconsin citizens who served in their nation's wars from the American Civil War to the Persian Gulf War.
The 19th century gallery showcases Wisconsin's involvement in the Civil War. It includes a large diorama depicting the Battle of Antietam. Visitors are also available to research their ancestors' Civil War records using two state-of-the-art computers available in the gallery.
In the 20th century gallery, exhibits illustrate Wisconsin veterans' roles in the Mexican Border campaign, the First and Second World Wars and also the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf conflicts. Three full-scale aircraft, a Sopwith Camel from World War I, a P-51 Mustang from World War II and a Huey helicopter from the Vietnam War, are displayed in the gallery as well.
Located at 30 West Mifflin Street in Madison since 1993, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum is an award-winning and world-renowned museum.
- Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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