Title: Wisconsin History Commission: Wisconsin History Commission Records
Inclusive Dates: 1861-1865, 1880-1918

Creator:

• Wisconsin History Commission

Call Number: Wis Mss EI

Quantity: 1.4 cubic feet (4 archives boxes and 1 card box)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records on Wisconsin's participation in the Civil War collected by the Grand Army of the Republic, Wisconsin Department, and later by the Wisconsin History Commission, both headed by Charles E. Estabrook. The records include correspondence, veteran questionnaires, minutes, clippings, histories of several regiments, and research.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000ei

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In 1897, the Wisconsin Department of the Grand Army of the Republic created a special committee in preparation for the semi-centennial celebration of the Civil War (1911). Members of the committee included: Charles E. Estabrook (chair), Levi J. Billings, and George B. Merrick, appointed by Department Commander E.B. Gray, an ex-officio member of the committee.

This work then merged into the Wisconsin History Commission, created under Chapter 378 of the Laws of Wisconsin for 1907, “... to develop a plan and gather and arrange in a systematic order the material for the history of the part Wisconsin and its citizens took in the civil war ....” The commission was authorized to reprint rare published materials; to gather recollections of survivors, and prepare company and regimental histories; to foster Civil War research among the younger generations; to prepare scholarly works; and to add to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin's collections on the Civil War. The members of the Commission were: Charles E. Estabrook, Professor Frederick Jackson Turner, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Henry E. Legler, the Wisconsin Governor [James O. Davidson?], Duncan McGregor, and Orlando Holway.

Several works were published by the commission including:

• Original papers – Wisconsin History Commission, (v. 1-8. [Madison]: Wisconsin History Commission, 1908-1914). A copy is available in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
• Records and Sketches of Military Organizations: Population, Legislation, Election and Other Statistics Relating to Wisconsin in the Period of the Civil War / Charles E. Estabrook editor, Duncan McGregor, Orlando Holway, Associate Commissioners ([Madison, Wis.?: Adjutant General’s Department?], 1914), is a compilation of actions, campaigns, and other efforts made by Wisconsin citizens during the Civil war, and includes brief regimental histories. A copy is available in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Records collected by the Grand Army of the Republic, Wisconsin Department, and later by the Wisconsin History Commission, both headed by Charles E. Estabrook, on Wisconsin's participation in the Civil War. The bulk of the papers relates to the work of Estabrook, and consists of correspondence, meeting minutes of the Wisconsin History Commission, a typescript of Biographical Sketches of Wisconsin Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865, and a typewritten index to Wisconsin items in the United States War Department's publication, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901). Included with the correspondence are rosters, registers, and miscellaneous items on the 3rd Wisconsin Light Artillery, the 26th, the 28th, and the 43rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry regiments, engagements at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Johnsonville and Nashville, Tennessee, and a disability claim of Charles H. Doerflinger (box 1, folder 10). Also includes: a Summary of Services for Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur (1845-1912) (box 1, folder 9); “Pete” Green; or The Vindication of a Private Soldier: a Decoration Day Sermon / by Jenkin Lloyd Jones (box 1, folder 2); original handwritten and transcriptions of letters from Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell of Company I, 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, later colonel of the 36th Wisconsin, written from various points in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (1861-1864) (box 4, folder 2-4); a copy of Philip Roesch's reminiscences of the war (box 2a, folder 3); and documents gathered by Ethel A. Hurn, relating to Wisconsin women in the war (1910) (box 2b and box 3, folder 1-5); “A Sketch of a Bombardment Unrecorded in History” / by J. Stuart Wilson, March 1, 1888 (box 1, folder 4).

Wis Mss EI Box   1 Folder   1-10	Correspondence with C.E. Estabrook, veteran questionnaires, and clippings, circa 1880-circa 1918
Box   1 Folder   11	Wisconsin History Commission minutes, 1907-1914
Box   2a Folder   1	43rd Infantry and general documents on Civil War Note: Includes statements on placement of General Robert E. Lee statue in United States Capitol.
Box   2a Folder   2	Reminiscences and other notes Note: Includes 1916 election materials of Estabrook, used as note paper.
Box   2a Folder   3	Philip Roesch memorandum
Box   2a Folder   4	Notes on the Civil War material in the Wisconsin Historical Library / by Donald Grindell and Marion Atwood Note: Used in preparation of their theses on social and economic conditions in Wisconsin at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Box   2a Folder   5	Hurn, Ethel Alice. Material collected for her thesis, “A History of Wisconsin Women in the Civil War,” 1910
Box   2b	Hurn, Ethel Alice. Bibliography for her thesis, “A History of Wisconsin Women in the Civil War”
Box   3 Folder   1-5	Biographical Sketches of Wisconsin Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865: typescript
Box   3 Folder   6-8	Index to the “Official Records for the Union and Confederate Armies”
Box   4 Folder   1	Index (continued)
	Frank A. Haskell letters
Box   4 Folder   2	Manuscript originals, 1861-1864
Box   4 Folder   3	Typescript copies, 1861-1864
Box   4 Folder   4	Biography of Frank A. Haskell / by Fredrick A. Stare