Wisconsin is one of those forgotten states for me – I can only spot it on the map by counting away from Illinois, and it’s never made it onto my must-see list. During the Civil War, though, it was a keystone for the Union. This short article details Wisconsin’s contributions to the Federal cause.

By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, the Wisconsin State Journal had been publishing for more than 20 years. But nothing could prepare Wisconsin and its nascent capital city for the horrors to follow. The country’s struggle with slavery, and the resulting war, would be the dominant issue of the time.

Families in Wisconsin and elsewhere were torn apart, as one soldier in three suffered some sort of casualty and one in every seven “gave the last full measure of devotion,” as Abraham Lincoln memorably said in his Getttysburg Address.

via The Wisconsin State Journal at 175: The Civil War years : Wsj.