The origin of the Wisconsin National Guard dates to March 5, 1837, when Capt. Morgan L. Martin organized a company of mounted riflemen called the Green Bay Rangers as the first unit of the Wisconsin Territorial Militia. Cities around the state formed their own units and they were organized into the Wisconsin State Militia after Wisconsin became a state in 1848. A Wisconsin law passed in 1858 allowed for militia companies to be formed whenever forty or more people wanted to “organize themselves into a uniform company, either of Artillery, Light Infantry, Riflemen or Cavalry.” Once a unit met state requirements, the governor commissioned its officers.

The attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, marked the official beginning of the American Civil War. Since Congress was not in session, President Abraham Lincoln had no legal way to enlarge the fighting force except to call the state militias into federal service. Accordingly, on April 15, 1861, Lincoln summoned 75,000 militiamen apportioned among the states according to the size of their militias. They were to serve for three months under officers appointed by their governors. Existing Wisconsin militia units organized into the 1st and 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry regiments. Throughout the war, Wisconsin organized fifty-three infantry regiments, four cavalry regiments, one heavy artillery regiment, thirteen light artillery batteries, and one company of sharpshooters. Over 91,000 Wisconsinites served during the American Civil War and over 12,000 were killed. Nearly every major battle included a Wisconsin regiment.

Wisconsin’s Civil War legacy firmly rests with the service of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th regiments in the Union Army’s Iron Brigade of the West. This unit, identified by its famous black campaign hats, fought with distinction at the Second Battle of Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Appomattox. While the brigade’s soldiers always fought valiantly, their most desperate combat and bloodiest sacrifice was at Gettysburg, where the unit suffered a 61 percent casualty rate when 1,153 of its 1,885 men were killed or wounded. The brigade’s 2d Wisconsin and 24th Michigan volunteer infantry regiments were particularly hard hit, suffering casualty rates of 77 percent and 80 percent, respectively. Today, the 127th and 128th Infantry carry the Iron Brigade’s proud lineage.

The militia reorganized in 1880 when the Light Horse Squadron formed in Milwaukee. The Organized Militia of Wisconsin became the Wisconsin National Guard in 1879, and its first battalion was formed out of the Custer Rifles, Beloit City Guards, Janesville Guards, and Bower City Rifles. Wisconsin provided four regiments to the U.S. Army for the Spanish-American War (1898) with the 2nd and 3rd Regiments deploying to Puerto Rico.

President Woodrow Wilson mobilized the entire National Guard to the U.S.-Mexican Border in 1916. The Wisconsin National Guard sent over 4,000 soldiers to San Antonio with most returning home in early 1917. A few months later, many of those soldiers would mobilize for service in World War I.

The Wisconsin National Guard provided 15,000 soldiers for World War I with most serving alongside 8,000 Michigan troops in the 32nd “Red Arrow” Division, which was constituted July 18, 1917, and organized at Camp MacArthur, Texas on August 26, 1917. The 32nd Division was the sixth U.S. division to arrive in France between February and March of 1918. The division fought with distinction in the Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, Meuse-Argonne, Alsace, and Champagne campaigns and received numerous accolades and recognition by the U.S. Army and by its French allies.

The Wisconsin National Guard reorganized in the 1920s across the state. In October of 1940, the 32nd Division was again called to federal service for a year of training in Louisiana. With the involvement of the USA in World War II, the division deployed to Australia in 1942 and would later experience 654 days of combat in New Guinea and the Philippines – the most combat days of any American division during the war. The division earned a Presidential Unit Citation for its action in the Philippines.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy mobilized the 32nd Infantry Division along with other reserve units for federal service. The division served for 10 months at Ft. Lewis, Washington, and was part of an intensified combat training program as response to the Berlin Crisis. The division returned home in 1962 ready to fight anywhere in the world on a few days’ notice. Wisconsin National Guard units have since deployed overseas for the Persian Gulf War and peacekeeping missions to Bosnia. Since 9/11, the Wisconsin National Guard has deployed worldwide in support of the Global War on Terrorism and other operations.