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Origins of Absentee Voting

By Russell Horton Reference Archivist …justice seems to demand that they should be rewarded in a different manner for their patriotism than by a loss of the most important right of citizenship. – Governor Edward Salomon When the Civil War began in April 1861, many people thought it would be

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A Soldier’s Sacrifice by Emily Irwin

On January 1, 1866, Governor Lucius C. Fairchild delivered his inaugural address and emphasized the Civil War’s impact on Wisconsin. A million of men have returned from the war, been disbanded in our midst, and resumed their former occupations… The transition from the citizen to the soldier was not half so rapid, nor

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The Price of a Name by Kevin Hampton

“The last terrible battle has reduced this brigade to a mere skeleton; there being scarcely enough members to form half a regiment, the 2nd Wisconsin, which but a few weeks since, numbered over nine hundred men, can now muster but fifty-nine. This brigade has done some of the hardest and best

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Wisconsin’s Fighting Flag by Kristine Zickuhr

Although Wisconsin became a state on May 29th, 1848, it did not have a state flag until decades later.  You might not know that the first version of Wisconsin’s state flag participated in the hardest battles of the Civil War. The ladies of a community often sewed flags for the first

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