Civil War, Camp Randall history lives again through re-enactors

Tom Klas does a good deal of walking “to keep in shape,” he says. “Most Civil War soldiers were on the march quite a bit and we try to look and act like the men we portray as far as we can.”

Klas is a member of the Old Northwest Volunteers, accuracy-driven individuals from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan who recreate the Civil War.

Interested in time travel?

Permit, then, the Old Northwest to spirit you back to the 1860s. The occasion will be the third Civil War Living History event, held on Saturday, June 10, in the GAR Memorial Park, adjacent to Camp Randall at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The event is sponsored by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, an educational activity of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.

This may surprise some of you, but Camp Randall wasn’t always the gold standard for football that it is today. In the 1850s, the site didn’t even belong to the university. It hosted state fairs as the property of the State Agriculture Society, but once war broke out in 1861 it quickly became a training center for troops. Named for Alexander W. Randall, Wisconsin’s first wartime governor, about two-thirds of the state’s almost 100,000 troops trained at Camp Randall. In addition, the camp housed more than 1,000 Confederate soldiers captured at the battle of Island 10 near Cairo, Ill. Nearly 120 prisoners of war died of sickness and malnourishment. All the Confederates who died at Camp Randall are buried in “soldier’s rest” at Forest Hill Cemetery on Madison’s west side. Soldiers again lived and trained in Camp Randall during both World Wars.

The history of the Camp Randall re-enactments is much more recent, dating to 1998 and Wisconsin’s (and the university’s) sesquicentennial. Indeed, this one will coincide with the city of Madison’s own sesquicentennial celebration, according to Jeff Kollath, curator of programs and exhibitions at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

“The Civil War is a very popular topic, and this event will give us an opportunity to reconnect with Wisconsin’s early military history. Wisconsin’s role in that war is a rich part of our history as a state, and re-enactors are exceptionally good at making history come alive,” he says.

Kollath says Klas is an excellent example of such a re-enactor. By day sales manager for Animart Inc., Klas has been in the thick of the Civil War, so to speak, since he was 16, he says

“I’ve always had an interest in the Civil War. My father fed that interest by taking me to National Battlefield Parks. He became a re-enactor himself in 1988 and perked my interest in becoming a living historian as well. At the moment I belong to several living history groups, including the Hard Head Mess (from the ‘West Bend Hard Heads’ of Company D), the Citizens’ Guard and the Old Northwest Volunteers,” he says.

At the Camp Randall event this year, the Old Northwest will recreate the lives and training of two of the units raised in Camp Randall, the 12th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, part of the famed Iron Brigade that achieved such a tremendous record of service in the eastern theater of the war, Klas says.

“The 12th Wisconsin was a western theater unit, which participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea, among many other actions,” he says.

As a re-enactor, it’s imperative that Klas know his onions about the Civil War. “A good portion of my free time is spent researching, coordinating and spending weekends at these events. We study and research all we can to become as accurate as we can. Our research is based directly on the recorded actions of the Seventh Wisconsin and the 12th Wisconsin for this living history presentation,” he says.

The encampment at Camp Randall will include prisoner of war presentations, company drills, a dinner call at which rations will be issued and food cooked, bayonet exercise and more.

“These stories are important to preserve and to keep alive,” Klas says. “I hope that the spectators who come to this event leave with a better appreciation for what the soldieries of 1861-65 sacrificed. I hope they are moved to keep their memory alive.

“And to remember that Camp Randall is not just a great place for football!” he adds.

“Return to Camp Randall: A Civil War Encampment” will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 10. All are welcome. A $2 donation is suggested.

For more information, or for information about getting involved with veterans’ memorial preservation projects, call (608) 261-0541.