The roster of Wisconsin's only unit of black Civil War soldiers

Company F, 29th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops [roster]

Under the Civil War draft, each state had to supply a quota of soldiers. In order to meet those quotas, states were allowed to pay people to serve in place of others. Company F of the 29th Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops, was made up primarily of Black Illinois soldiers who agreed to take the place of Wisconsin residents, and was credited to Wisconsin. Though most were from Illinois or Missouri, a handful of Wisconsin African Americans, such as Sgt. Alfred Weaver, a former slave living in Vernon County, did join Company F, and other members of it settled in Wisconsin after the war. Company F saw action mostly late in the war, in the Petersburg Campaign, the the Richmond Campaign, and the Appomattox Campaign, at which some witnessed the surrender of Robert E. Lee. The link below shows a list of all the soldiers who served in the unit. Although most were credited to Wisconsin in order to meet draft quotas, very few had actually ever lived in Wisconsin.

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