Tag Archive | Wisconsin
USS Cobia
The USS Cobia is a WW2 Gato Class submarine on permanent display in Manitowoc, Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. The Cobia was actually built in Connecticut but is exactly the same as the 28 submarines built in Manitowoc during WW2. The building of 28 submarines in a fresh water, inland port is something of […]
If Wishes Came True
Below is one of my recent World War One era postcards finds: The card is post marked from Rockford, IL and dated November 20, 1917. World War One would have one more year to go before the brutal fighting would be over. The US declared war on Germany in April of 1917 and was well on […]
Cpl. Herb Lehnen, 101st AB, 327th Glider Inf. From Normandy to Bergstaden
I have a friend who lost touch with her father due to a divorce when she was about five-years-old. Much later in life she connected with cousins who were able to tell her about her biological father. As it turns out my friend’s father was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, 327th Glider Infantry […]
Morgenrot_Morning Glow
The 26th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was a “German” Regiment raised for the Union during the American Civil War. It was nicknamed “The Sigel Regiment” after Franz Sigel himself a German immigrant from Baden. Twelve regiments of Germans were raised in 1862 from areas in the north with heavy German immigrant populations. The 26th Wisconsin was […]
Wisconsin National Guard Behaving Badly
My dad was proud of military service in WW2. Before he passed away he asked me to get an honor guard for his funeral which I did when he died in 2006. The men that showed up to fire the salute and hand me the flag were professional and courteous. The squad leader gave me […]
Mind Boggling Military Hardware Museum in Illinois_1
I finally took the time to visit the Russell Road Museum. The Russell Road Museum is a private enterprise devoted to preserving military hardware from the WW2 era to the present. The museum sits on the border between Wisconsin and Illinois but officially is in Illinois, but not by much! The museum was previously in […]
Day One Gettysburg, Iron Brigade Tribute
On this day in history, July 1st, 1863, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia met the Union Army of the Potomac at the small town of Gettysburg. Union Cavalry held up the initial Confederate advance until the Union First Corps could come up to reinforce them. First of the scene was the 1st Brigade of […]
The Men Stood Like Iron_Book Review
McClellan: “What are those troops fighting on the pike?” Hooker: “General Gibbon’s brigade of Western men.” McClellan: “They must be made of iron.” Hooker: “By the Eternal, they are iron! If you had seen them at Bull Run [2nd Bull Run] as I did. You would know them to be iron. McClellan: “Why, General Hooker, […]
The “2nd German” 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The 2000 census shows that 53% of Wisconsin’s population claims some German ancestry. During the Civil War a number of regiments consisted primarily of soldiers of one nationality. The best example is probably the Irish Brigade consisting of New England Regiments. Because of the huge number of immigrants from German areas of Europe whole regiments […]
The Iron Brigade at Gettysburg-Book Review
“Where has the firmness of the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg been surpassed in history?” Asked Rufus Dawes in a letter from Marietta, Ohio to an 1884 reunion of his Lemonweir Minute Men at Mauston [WI]. “Two thousand muskets were carried into battle and for four long hours these men breasted the billows of rebellion until […]
History and Hobbies 