24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment

The 24th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 24th Wisconsin was organized at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and mustered into Federal service August 15, 1862. The regiment's flag was provided by citizens of Madison, who had promised it to the first regiment to reach full recruitment.^[1]

The regiment served under generals Grant and Sherman and was engaged in the battles Stone's River, Chickamauga, Franklin, Nashville, Missionary Ridge and Chattanooga.

The regiment was mustered out on June 10, 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee.

The regimental adjutant was Arthur MacArthur Jr. (later rose to Lieutenant General and father of General Douglas MacArthur). On September 5, 1912 Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur died while addressing his old unit. The original 24th Wisconsin Infantry United States flag was then draped over the former commanding officer and thus the tradition of burial flags was born. MacArthur also coined the Wisconsin state slogan when He cried "On Wisconsin" as he led his men up Missionary Ridge at the battle of Chattanooga, a feat for which he would later receive the Medal of Honor.

Another officer in the regiment was 1st Lieutenant John L. Mitchell. Mitchell later became a United States Senator and was the father of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell - an outspoken and controversial advocate of air power. By great coincidence, Arthur MacArthur's son Douglas was a juror for the court martial of John Mitchell's son Billy in 1925.

Casualties

The 24th Wisconsin suffered 8 officers and 103 enlisted men killed in action or who later died of their wounds, plus another 3 officers and 87 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 201 fatalities.

Commanders

• Colonel Charles H. Larrabee - resigned Aug. 22, 1862
• Colonel Theodore S. West

See also

• List of Wisconsin Civil War units
• Wisconsin in the American Civil War

References

• The Civil War Archive