The History of the Wisconsin 3rd Infantry Regiment

The 3rd Infantry was organized at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and mustered into the service of the United States Union Army on the 29th day of June, 1861. The regiment left Wisconsin on July the 12th reporting to Hagerstown, Maryland. From the camp at Hagerstown the men marched on to Harper's Ferry.
The Third was then assigned to Patterson's Army and its first year of service was served upon the upper Potomac and in the Shenandoah Valley. The Regiment participated in a number of engagements. The most important being Winchester and Cedar Mountain.
When the Union army under General Pope was being pressed northward by the Confederates in August 1862, the portion of the army in which the Third was serving was united with the army under General Pope, and shortly thereafter General McClellan was assigned as Commandeer in Chief. It was as a part of this force the Third participated in the battle of Antietam.
In the early part of 1863, with the Army of the Potomac, the 3rd participated in the campaign of Chancellorsville, and the battle of Gettysburg.
On July 13, 1863, the Third was sent to the city of New York to assist in quelling the draft riots in that city, and encamped in the City Hall park until the 5th of September, when the regiment returned to Virginia.
In the latter part of September the Twelfth Corps, of which the Third was a part, was transferred to the middle of southern Tennessee as a part of the Army of the Cumberland. The Third was stationed at Stevenson, AL, from the 3rd day of October, and during the latter part of that year to the early part of 1864. The regiment was engaged in guarding important lines of railroad communications in southern Tennessee and northern Alabama.
On the reorganization of the Army about Chattanooga for the advance upon Atlanta under General Sherman, the Third was assigned to the Second Brigade of the First Division of the Twentieth Army Corps and commanded by General Joseph Hooker. As a part of Hooker's force the 3rd participated in the Atlanta Campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, May 1 to September 8, 1864; the 'March to the Sea', Atlanta to Savannah, November 15 to December 21, 1864, and from Savannah through the Carolinas, January 1 to April 26, 1865, until the surrender of the Confederate forces under General Johnston April 26, 1865.
Thereafter the Third participated in the Grand Review at Washington. On the 15th of June the 3rd was transferred to Louisville, KY, and was mustered out of the service of the United States on the 18th of July, 1865. The regiment returned to Madison, WI on the 23rd of July and was shortly thereafter disbanded.