Frederick A. Bird was born in Madison, Wisconsin on September 22, 1839. He enlisted in August 1861 in response to Governor Randall's call for the state to raise five more regiments in addition to the eight already forming. Bird joined Colonel Charles Harris' 11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was appointed as the regimental quartermaster sergeant. In November 1861 Governor Randall appointed him assistant quartermaster with the rank of second lieutenant. Bird joined Company B, 20th Wisconsin Infantry as it was forming in July 1862. Bird was wounded during the assault on a Confederate battery at Prairie Grove, Arkansas on December 7, 1862. He was placed on detached service where he served first as regimental and then as brigade quartermaster. Rejoining the 20th Wisconsin in 1863, he participated in the capture of Vicksburg and the regiment's campaigns in Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana. Bird mustered out with the regiment on July 14, 1865 and returned to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin where he took up farming. He was active in the Grand Army of the Republic. He died in Madison in 1922.
