Camp Randall in Madison was the largest staging point for Wisconsin troops entering the American Civil War. Here fresh volunteers received quick training before heading off to join the Union Army; the grounds also housed a hospital and, briefly, a prisoner-of-war camp for captured Confederate soldiers. When the Civil War broke out after the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Lincoln called for troops from the state militias.
He initially asked Wisconsin for one regiment of 780 men for three months, and Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall promptly pledged that first regiment to the Union cause. Those musters and quick trainings happened here, at this place that organized the state's response. Today the camp's land is split between UW athletic buildings including Camp Randall Stadium, the College of Engineering, and Camp Randall Memorial Park with its historic and memorial displays.
In 1971 the Memorial Park section was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, considered "the single most important site in Wisconsin relating to the state's participation in the Civil War. After Fort Sumter fell in April 1861, Governor Alexander Randall pledged Wisconsin's first regiment of 780 men to the Union.