WAUPACA RECORD
February 24, 1910
Twenty-first Wisconsin Regiment Association
The Twenty-first Regiment Building has the distinction of being the only regimental building out of the several buildings and cottages which have been built by organizations and individuals on the grounds of the Wisconsin Veteran’s Home, the first Home of its kind in the United States.
For twenty-two years the members of the 21st Regiment have held an annual reunion. Away back in the summer of 1888, year after the opening of the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home, while the regiment were in reunion at that place, Lieut. Chas. Clark of Co. I, introduced a resolution, which was unanimously adopted, calling for the appointment of a committee to solicit subscriptions and take charge of the erection of a cottage at the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home, to be known as the Twenty-first Wisconsin Cottage. This committee consisted of Lieut. Clark, Col. J.H. Woodnorth and the former headed the list of subscriptions with $500. Col. Fitch followed with $200. This call for funds for this purpose met with such generous and universal response from from the survivors of this Regiment, that in 1889 the committee commenced the erection of the cottage, and it was completed and dedicated in 1900. The cottage cost $2,500. And the subscriptions ranged all the way from $500 to 25 cents. Col. Woodnorth received these subscriptions and receipted for the same, however small was the amount.
It was originally intended that this cottage should be used for housing the members of the 21st Regiment and their wives who might need the care and protection of this Home, but this was found to be impracticable as some might be compelled to go to the hospital, and all who occupied the cottage must go to the main dining hall for their meals. So it was converted partially into a library and reading room, and the rooms in the second story have been occupied by single men, housing about twenty men continuously. The cottage is modern in all its equipments. Heated with steam, lighted with electric lights, furnished with bath and toilet rooms and hot and cold water. The library contains about 1,500 volumes covering a vast variety of subjects and is very generally patronized by the members and employees of the Home. There is also on file each week about thirty-five weekly newspapers from different portions of the state, contributed free of charge by the proprietors of the same, also several daily papers from Milwaukee and Chicago. There is also furnished by the state department of the W.R.C. from $30 to $40 worth of popular magazines each year, and in addition to all these there is on file an official war record containing all the reports made, and orders issued by the commanding generals of both the Union and Confederate armies. On the first floor there is one large room, now occupied as a reading room, in which is a large fireplace. On either side of this is a double room used for the books and magazines and papers, and a large bedroom occupied by the librarian. On the second floor there are two large double rooms and three smaller ones, all occupied by single men. On the walls of the rooms on the first floor are hanging the pictures of Cols. H.C. Hobert, M.H. Fitch and J.H. Woodnorth, and Capt. James E. Stewart and Lieut. Charles Clark. From the ranks of the Regiment: A.W. Ballard, Christ Hill and Ed. Vredenberg, and many of the battle scenes in which the Regiment participated.
This building stands as a fitting monument of patriotism and loyalty not only to the survivors of the 21st Regiment but to the honored dead, who went gallantly forth to answer their country’s call.
The 21st Regiment fought valiantly in nearly all the great battles and out of the 2500 regimental organizations only 281 have a larger number of those killed in battle to their credit than the Twenty-first Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers.
At their last reunion, which was held at Omro Sept. 23-24, 1909, the following high tribute was paid them by one outside their number:
"The next time I saw you was at Mitchellville where many of you no doubt remember, your flag was at half mast nearly every day. This was after your bloody baptism at Perryville. For the next year I saw you every day; at Nashville, at Stone River, at Hoovers Gap, before Tullahoma, when you crossed the Tennessee river on the pontoon at Bridgeport, at McLemore’s Cove, at Chickamauga – and at all times, in good weather and in bad, in camp, on the march, on picket duty, on the skirmish line, and in the forefront of battle, the 21st Wisconsin Infantry was a credit to the loyal state that put it in the field, and an honor to the nation under whose flag it fought. As the remnants of such a regiment I greet you. I hope you will enjoy the present reunion and that it will be your privilege to meet many times before the final halt is called and you go into bivouac on the eternal camping grounds".
Included with article:
Photo of group attending 21st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Reunion, Omro, September 23-24, 1901
Photo of 21st Regt. Building, Wis. Vet’s Home