Wisconsin and the Civil War

Wisconsin troops fought and died for the Union on Civil War battlefields across the continent, from Shiloh to Gettysburg. Wisconsin lumberjacks built a dam that saved a stranded Union fleet.

The Second Wisconsin Infantry suffered the highest percentage of battle deaths in the Union army. Back home, in a state largely populated by immigrants and recent transplants, the war effort forced Wisconsin's residents to forge a common identity for the first time. Drawing on unpublished letters and new research, Ron Larson tells Wisconsin's Civil War story, from the famous exploits of the Iron Brigade to the heretofore largely unknown contributions of the Badger State's women, African Americans and Native Americans.

Ronald Paul Larson is a Kenosha, Wisconsin native. After high school he served for two years in the U.S. Army. Afterward, he received a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double major in history and communication arts, with an emphasis in radio, television and film. In the early 1990s he began working in documentary television. He was the head text researcher for a six-part documentary on the Revolutionary War for the Learning Channel, which won the cable Ace Award for "Best Documentary Series" in 1995. In 2005, Larson received an MA in history from California State University, Fullerton. In addition, he has gone to several conflict zones over the years photographing and interviewing fighters and civilians about their experiences: Afghanistan, 1985 (during the Afghan-Soviet war); Iraq, 2003 (as an embedded print reporter with a U.S. Army unit); Libya, 2011 (the revolution against Gaddafi); Aleppo, Syria, 2013; and Turkey, 2015. His next project will be based on those conflict zone experiences.