On this date Governor Louis Harvey died while trying to help wounded Wisconsin troops after the Battle of Shiloh.

Harvey (1820-1862) came to Kenosha in 1841 to teach school. He also started a newspaper there, was elected to help write the state constitution in 1847, and was a founder of the Republican Party. After serving as a state senator (1854-1857) and secretary of state (1860-1862), Harvey was elected governor in January of 1862 at the age of 41.

By then, Wisconsin soldiers had arrived in the South in large numbers to fight in the Civil War. During the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, or Shiloh, on April 6-7, 1862, more than 15,000 of them were killed or wounded. Governor Harvey received word that many Wisconsin residents were injured and that hospital facilities were scarce. He organized a group of Wisconsin doctors and nurses to bring much-needed medical supplies and personally led them South to learn about conditions.

On the night of April 19, while crossing from one steamboat to another on the Tennessee River, Harvey slipped and fell into the swift currents. Although his companions dove into the pitch-black water under the steamboats, they could not save him; his body surfaced 10 days later nearly 60 miles downstream. After a brief period of mourning, Harvey's widow Cordelia (1824-1895) resumed the work of providing medical support for Union soldiers, eventually prevailing upon President Abraham Lincoln to authorize the first veterans hospitals in the North.

Only one other Wisconsin governor has died in office. Governor Walter Goodland passed away on March 12, 1947, midway through his third term. Death prevented a second governor from serving at all: Goodland's predecessor, Orland Loomis (1893-1942), won election in November 1942 but died a month later, before taking office.