The Watertown Rifles

Medal of Honor Recipients from Wisconsin: From the smoke-choked fields of the American Civil War to the treacherous jungles of Vietnam, soldiers from Wisconsin have stepped into the crucible of history and emerged with the nation’s highest military accolade: the Medal of Honor.

During the bloody fratricide of the Civil War, Wisconsin sons serving in the famed Iron Brigade demonstrated unbreakable resolve on legendary battlefields like Antietam and Gettysburg, holding the line against overwhelming Confederate assaults. Years later, as the nation expanded westward, cavalrymen and scouts clashed in brutal engagements during the Indian War Campaigns, where Wisconsin troops braved the harsh frontier to secure contested territories.

As America stepped onto the global stage, Badger State service members continued to answer the call of duty. In the steamy jungles and entrenched positions of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, and amid the chaotic street fighting of the China Relief Expedition (Boxer Rebellion), Wisconsin soldiers exhibited extraordinary valor against formidable foes.

When the industrialized slaughter of World War I erupted in the trenches of Europe, Wisconsin doughboys—many hailing from the historic 32nd “Red Arrow” Division—earned Medals of Honor by neutralizing heavily fortified German machine-gun nests under murderous fire.

This legacy of peerless bravery extended into the global conflagration of World War II, where Wisconsin heroes fought across two oceans, throwing themselves onto grenades and charging pillboxes to save their comrades on the bloody shores of the Pacific and the frozen fields of Europe. In the unforgiving terrain of the Korean War and the asymmetric, brutal guerrilla warfare of the Vietnam War, subsequent generations of Wisconsin servicemen endured impossible odds, engaging in close-quarter combat and sacrificing their lives to protect their units. Across every major era of American conflict, the Medal of Honor recipients from Wisconsin have embodied a stoic, unyielding courage that permanently inscribed their names into the annals of American military history.