Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Wisconsin Veterans Museum

I just renewed my membership in the foundation that supports the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, one of the fine state-operated museums in Madison. The Vets' museum on the Capitol Square is the successor to the Civil War Museum that once occupied the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic - Union war veterans) rooms in the Capitol Building. The Vets' Museum was created by the former curator of the Civil War Museum, Richard Zeitlin, unfortunately deceased. It contains exhibits about all of the conflicts that involved combatants from Wisconsin and one of the largest exhibits, appropriately, is about the Civil War. The current issue of the museum magazine includes this recently acquired picture


The caption reads "Spencer Bronson, a Fall River soldier who served in Company B, 7th Wisconsin Infantry (Iron Brigade). Bronson was taken prisoner at Gettysburg, and was later wounded in the Wilderness. On April 14, 1865, Bronson was in attendance at Ford's Theatre and witnessed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln."

The first custodian of the GAR museum in the Capitol Building was Hosea Rood, a veteran who enlisted at age sixteen and served throughout the Civil War. He was a Seventh Day Baptist from Milton, Wisconsin.

I often shepherd visitors to Madison toward this fine museum.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum

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