Wisconsin Dells Civil War Monument

Memorial: Wisconsin Dells Civil War Veterans Monument

Year Erected: Unsure, no plaque

Location: Wisconsin Dells, WI: Spring Grove Cemetery, West Side of downtown Wisconsin Dells

If you’ve never been to the Wisconsin Dells, it is a tourist trap… For southerners, it is the Pigeon Forge of the north.  Most people know about Kalahari Resort and the great waterparks but the small downtown of Wisconsin Dells is awesome.  Very touristy, but that’s what makes it so fun during the off-season.  If I were a kid, I can imagine asking my parents to get some candy/fudge or go into one of the many gift shops along the main street. I do not think I would be asking for them to go the local cemetery a mile past the main strip, but that is what I did last week.

One the western side of the main downtown, sits Spring Grove Cemetery.  A public cemetery with clearly lots of history.  There is a famous grave I stumbled upon that I will go into in a later post. As I was driving towards oldest section, there were many veteran markers from the Civil War on. It is interesting to see the people who ended up settling down in the dells area after the war. The Civil War veterans whos graves I could make out are farther down.

Since the current boarders of the Wisconsin Dells are in Columbia, Sauk, Adams, and Juneau counties, it was tough to figure out exactly which civil war regiments and companies were comprised mainly of people from this area, but I can tell you if you look at the makeup of several of the Wisconsin Regiments, there are many companies came from this area (Link). Obviously, it helps that this is in the middle of the state and relatively close to Madison (the Capital).

The Monument is of a standing solitary union soldier, grasping a rifle in front of him. Newly repainted, this statue looks much nicer than others I have seen that are falling apart. Surrounding it are soldier pines and it is on the top of the highest hill in the cemetery as well as the U.S. flag flying beside it. Besides the fact that it was single digit temp with terrible winds the day that I visited, the sun shined from behind the statue with clear blue skies. There were no markings on the statue, or around the raised platform that it stood on, but I believe that is because the local round table was reworking it (hence the fresh new paint).

As stated, there were many other civil war veterans that were buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery. Listed below. There were 8 graves that were unreadable due to the eroded stone but had Grand Army of the Republic markers by them.

• Richard B Rose: Company G, 37th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• Alvin Brown: Company I, 3rd Illinois Infantry Regiment

• Cprl Leander S. Peck: Company G, 46th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• Henry H. Bennett: Company E, 12th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• Jay Bennett: Company E, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• 2nd Lt. James M. Townsend: Company A, 75th Ohio Infantry Regiment

• Loren Bidwell: 16th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• (unreadable) Carpenter: Company H, 16th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment

• Alvaro N Griffin: Company E, 12th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• Joseph Hawes: Company E, 12th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• 1st Sgt Rensler Cronk: Company I, 18th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• Otis S. Glack: Company H, 5th Minnesota Infantry Regiment

• John Turner: Company E, 27th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

• George H. Houghton: Army of the Potomac Photographer 1861-1863

As I was writing the above list, there were multiple individuals in Company E of the 12th Wisconsin, so I decided to look up what that Regiment did. The 12th WI took place in the following engagements. Siege of Vicksburg, MS, Siege of Jackson, MS, raids on Tupelo, MS before getting transferred to Sherman for the beginning of the Atlanta campaign.

In the Atlanta campaign, the 12th Wisconsin helped assault Kennesaw Mountain on the far left of the Union Line under MJ Francis Blair Jr. (XVII Corps, III Division (Leggett), 1st Brigade (Force)) guarding the area along the river and attacking the rebels under Featherston at the base of the hill. The rebels were deeply trenched and pushed back the 3rd division under Leggett (On the Federal left flank at Kennesaw).

Link to Picture

They also saw major action at the Battle of Jonesborough, GA (south of Atlanta) under Brigadier General Charles Woods (17th Army Corps (Blair), Third Division (Woods), 1st Brigade (Bryant)). The Wisconsin Regiment helped hold the line on the Union left while S. Lee (under Hardee) was attacking. The attack was savage on the union right so the XVII sent MJ Blair and some brigades west past the Flint River and defended the flank before attacking the center of the Confederate Left.

This victory of this battle resulted in the full cut-off of communications to Atlanta and the decision for Hood to shortly after evacuate Atlanta and move west, allowing Sherman to capture Atlanta and move south.

Battle of Jonesboro Battle Map Link to Picture

The 12th Wisconsin took place in 'Shermans March to the Sea' as well as many battles/skirmishes in the Carolinas Campaign at the end of the war.

I can't explain to you truly how much joy it brings me to stumble upon these monuments and statues. I really looked for something on google maps and searched for civil war monument and could not find anything. There was a painting on the side of a building and a grave that I was told go see which I will talk about both some other week, but this did not show up. It is a beautiful monument and I'm glad that I stumbled upon it. I could read about these battles for hours and not get tired.

PWW