September 22, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WISCONSIN CIVIL WAR UNIT BATTLE FLAG RETURNS TO HOME STATE
MADISON, Wis. (September 22, 2016) – The Wisconsin Veterans Museum announced today that a descendant of a Civil War soldier from the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment has donated a battle flag (guidon) to the museum’s permanent collection.
The flag was previously housed in Tennessee, with the great-granddaughter of Corporal Edward Wiseman. Corporal Wiseman was an Irish immigrant who enlisted with the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry in 1861 while living in Grant County, Wisconsin. He brought the flag home after leaving the unit in November of 1865 and it was passed down to his descendants throughout the years.
“This is an incredible addition to our collection,” said Michael Telzrow, Wisconsin Veteran’s Museum Director. “We’re truly grateful for this gift from Corporal Wiseman’s great-granddaughter and we are thrilled to see another piece of Wisconsin’s Civil War history come back to its home state.”
The flag is known as a guidon, a type used by mounted troops during the Civil War to distinguish cavalry units on the battlefield and serve as a rallying point for soldiers while engaged in maneuvers and combat. This significant addition to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum collection joins only a handful of other Civil War guidons already in the museum’s collection.
ABOUT THE WISCONSIN VETERANS MUSEUM
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum is an educational activity of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs created to commemorate, acknowledges and affirm the role of Wisconsin citizens in American military history, past and present. Located at 30 W. Mifflin St., Madison, WI, the museum is home to more than 26,000 historical objects that tell the stories of local veterans through displays from the Civil War to the War on Terror.