Madison and the Civil War: An Uneasy Partnership*
Introduction
The Civil War had a tremendous impact on Madison. Not only did many of its men leave to fight, creating difficult conditions for the families they left behind, but Madison hosted tens of thousands of men from throughout the state who were training for war. At any given time, those soldiers increased the city’s population by anywhere from a third to a half. The economic benefit to Madison and relations with these trainees were profound in both positive and negative ways. When the Civil War began in April 1861, Madison was a city of fewer than 7,000 persons. Most stores were located in stone buildings around the Capitol Square. Soldiers trained and lived at Camp Randall, by the UW football stadium. Later, Camp Randall would house Southern "enemy" soldiers, with many dying there as a result of disease and complications from their wounds. There are two cemetery plots in Forrest Hills, by West High School - one for Northern/Union soldiers and one for Southern/Confederate soldiers. It is the northern most burial site in the U.S. for southern soldiers, many who have no name on their headstone.
Camp Randall Memorial Arch that still remains at Camp Randall, by the WI Badgers Football Stadium
What was life like for a soldier at Camp Randall?
Mostly boring, occasionally eventful, sometimes lawless. Officers were often confronted with situations that weren’t in the regulations and had to make up solutions on the spot.
Reveille was at 5 a.m. Surgeon’s call at 6 a.m. Breakfast at 7 a.m. Dinner at 12:25. Supper at 5:25. Dress parade at 6 p.m. Taps at 10 p.m. No martial music was allowed in camp. The men drilled three times each day; at times the grass was so worn down that the men marched in deep mud. No one could leave camp without a pass (unless they were agile enough to jump the fence, which many were). No loaded firearms were allowed in camp. A soldier who injured utensils or property had to pay for it. No cheering was allowed unless ordered by a commissioned officer. .
The soldiers’ diet consisted of butter, milk, dried apples, sugar, potatoes, beans, coffee, meat, and bread. According to most soldier accounts, the food was barely tolerable.
They slept in wooden barracks or tents, which usually leaked when it rained and failed to keep them warm in winter. The men usually had a few free hours in the evening. Those who could not get a pass into Madison stayed in camp and gambled or drank. Soldiers could also visit any of a dozen refreshment stands or three photographers or a barber who had facilities on the grounds. They also sang, read, debated, wrestled, raced each other, and played baseball.
Women were part of the camp, usually serving as nurses. Hannah Eubank, a 20 year-old from Marquette, wore a blue jacket trimmed with military buttons and gold lace; a scarlet skirt trimmed with blue and gold lace; white pants and vest; a blue velvet hat with yellow plumes; and white kid gloves.
Here are a few incidents that occurred at Camp Randall:
On September 10, 1861, Mrs. Foster, who had followed her husband to war and was serving as a nurse at the camp hospital, was ordered to go home by the camp commander because she was thought to be too beautiful and was distracting the men. After a universal protest by the soldiers she was allowed to stay.
Perhaps the saddest death at Camp Randall was that of Wallace Allen Torrey, the six year-old son of the assistant surgeon, who died a week after arriving to visit his father of disease he caught from the soldiers. He’d been a favorite of the soldiers. They’d let him play a drum with the band and had given him a special cap to wear.
Soldier / civilian interactions
It was fairly easy for soldiers to get passes to town, especially in the first days of the war. They attended the theater and church and patronized saloons, billiard halls, and bowling alleys. Regimental bands often played at city or state events. Troops were constantly marching through town for practice. Some soldiers developed relationships with local women.
Over the course of the war, the ladies of Madison regularly provided treats, clothing, blankets, comforters, and recycled newspapers for the soldiers at Camp Randall. They gave at least eight full-scale dinners at camp, some followed by dances.
What was it like to be a civilian in Madison during the war?
Madison was split almost equally between those who supported the Lincoln’s Administration’s handling of the war and those who opposed it.
Now for the day to day of civilian life:
Caring for the families of Madison’s volunteers was an issue. Some wives had to support as many as eight children. On April 19, 1861, 1,500 citizens met in the Assembly chamber and pledged $7,500 to support the families of the volunteers. Monthly allowances ranged from $4 to $7.
Throughout the war Madison businesses prospered – tailors supplied officers’ uniforms. Saloons, billiard parlors, refreshment and liquor stands near camp, and disorderly houses all did a booming business.
Many women joined the Ladies Aid Society, which handed out aid money and supplies to destitute military families and worked tirelessly in the basement of the Capitol assembling packages and medical supplies for the troops at the front.
On July 22, Madisonians awoke to news of the battle at Bull Run. The newspapers established a pattern of reporting that became all too familiar in coming years – at first, extreme optimism about the battle, followed by crushing reality.
“Nearly 4,000 Soldiers Slain on the field. Union Troop Victorious!”
"That a most brilliant victory has been achieved by our gallant troops there is no doubt. The Rebels are completely routed...”
Then came reality. “Rejoicing Turns to Deep Mourning. Our Troops Retreating. A Stampede by Our Troops.”
Southern soldiers were imprisoned at Camp Randall, by the football stadium where many died of disease spread among them. Camp Randall was not exactly a secure facility. At least twice Madisonians found Confederates walking in the country and marched them back to camp. Amos Carr, a guard of the Southerners, was arrested for taking a bribe to help Confederates escape.
On May 24, at 7 a.m., a sick prisoner came out of the hospital and refused to do as Clarence Wicks, a 17 year-old northern guard, told him. While they were arguing the prisoner’s brother, G. W. Spears, called Wicks an insulting name. Wicks fired a bullet into the prisoner’s heart.
On May 3 three hundred more prisoners arrived. Among the sick was a woman suffering from lung fever. Her husband and brother had both been captured, and somehow she got herself and her two children on the prison boat when it headed to Wisconsin. Her husband and children died on the way. She was put in a partitioned off area of the camp hospital and was attended to and cared for by the northern ladies.
Madisonians avoided a draft (government forcing you to go into the army) by insisting that men eligible for the draft contribute $30 to a bounty fund, and voted special taxes upon themselves to raise enough money to pay bounties to volunteers and to pay substitutes. Substitutes earned a reputation for collecting their money and then deserting and moving to the next town and collecting more money and so on. From the fall of 1863 on, many substitutes were confined in the bull pen at Camp Randall immediately upon their arrival for fear they’d desert. Sixty three men did successfully escape by tunneling. Of course, others escaped by simply climbing over the bull pen fence.
Clashes
As much as Madison benefited economically from Camp Randall, the presence of so many soldiers had a dark side.
Between November 1861 and early February 1862 there were seven incidents, featuring soldiers stealing oxen and turkeys; an attempted rape; a hotel proprietor hitting an unruly soldier with a fireplace poker in self-defense; the sheriff and townspeople chasing a soldier while brandishing pitchforks and sled stakes; a townsman struck over the head by a whiskey bottle; and the beating of a civilian by a dozen drunken Norwegian soldiers. In some cases, the soldiers were fined as little as $1.
Said the Patriot Newspaper: “Drunken rowdies infest the streets at all hours of the day and night. The street from camp to the city is filled with squads of them”; such was the case all summer.
One soldier stabbed another to death, robbing him of his reenlistment bounty money; others attacked a boy driving a cutter. Brewery employees who demanded that soldiers pay for broken glasses found themselves badly injured after a fray featuring pistols and clubs. Three soldiers were beaten up by a civilian after they struck his dog with a cane.
There were five more clashes in the month after the riot - soldiers chased a man into a hotel dining room with revolvers drawn, swearing they’d shoot him; a soldier drew a revolver on a citizen in the street; soldiers attacked a man, stole his buggy, and beat up a farmer who tried to help him; soldiers called Fred Ostertag a “Copperhead” and fired at him in the Harmonic Saloon; and John Keller fought with soldiers in front of an eating house and came out “the worse for wear.”
End of the war
Relations between soldiers and civilians calmed down substantially after that busy August of 1864. By the end of the year it was clear that Union victory was inevitable. Lincoln had been reelected. Sherman had marched to the sea with Wisconsin troops, and Lee was penned up at Petersburg, facing more Wisconsin men.
April 10: “Victory! Glorious News! Lee’s army surrenders. Glory to God in the Highest. On Earth Peace and Goodwill.”
Then came the headline on April 15: “Horror! Horror! Most Dreadful News! Assassination. President Lincoln Shot. He died this morning.” The Capitol and businesses were closed.
On April 22, in the last notable Camp Randall incident of the war, Marvin Nellis of the was reported killed when a musket discharged and a ball passed through his head. The next day the corpse appeared at the Wisconsin State Journal office to report he wasn’t quite dead yet. A citizen bent on robbery had taken a shot at him, but missed. Nellis had fallen to the ground and thrown his pocketbook to one side and played dead. The assailant had searched his pockets, found nothing, and fled.
Today, Camp Randall lies unrecognizable beneath the UW’s athletic facilities. The only outward vestiges of the Civil War that remain in Madison are artifacts in the State and Veterans museums; the Camp Randall Memorial Arch; a few cannon around Camp Randall stadium; the statue of Colonel Hans Christian Heg, who died at Chickamauga, at the King Street entrance to the Capitol; and Union Lot, Confederate Rest, and the graves of individual soldiers at Forest Hill and Resurrection cemeteries.
*Researched and organized by Mark Gajewski, Chairman of the Historic Madison Board, 2013. Edited by Nancy Bogue.
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