Training/Muster Site of the 2nd, 6th and 7th WI Infantry
History and Sketches/Paintings
located on the grounds of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Occupying 21 acres exting from University Avenue to Monroe Street, between Breeze Terrace and Randall Avenue, the acreage was donated in 1861 by the Wisconsin State Agriculture Society to the state legislature as a training round for Union troops.
The camp became the center of Wisconsin military activities,
and more than 70,000 men were quartered and trained there.
After the War, the property became the Wisconsin State Firgrounds,
but in 1893 it was acquired by the University of Wisconsin as an athletic field.
In 1911 a section of the property was set aside at the Camp Randall Memorial Park,
with a memorial arch that was completed in 1912 to honor Wisconsin's Civil War soldiers.
During World War I, the camp was temporarily reactivated as a drill ground for troops destined for overseas.
The Civil War Regiments trained at Camp Randall were:
2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 19th,
20th, 23rd, 29th, 30th, 36th, 38th, 40th, 42nd, 46th, 49th.
Camp Randall also saw the departure of Co. G of Berdan's Sharpshooters.
For a brief time (3 months) during the War, Camp Randall was a
Confederate Prisoner of War Camp.
During that time 139 men die there.
Most were Confederate soldiers from Alabama.
They are buried at the Confederate Rest Cemetery in Madison.
Those who managed to survive were sent to various other POW Camps.
Camp Randall was named in honor of Wisconsin's Governor Alexander W. Randall.
*** For more information on Camp Randall see the Second Wisconsin Website.
