Wisconsin was prompt to respond to the call for troops in 1898 when war was declared with Spain. Four regiments of infantry, beside the first light battery, were mustered in. The battery did not leave the state, as hostilities ceased before they were ordered to the front. The first regiment got as far as Jacksonville, Fla. The second and third, after several weeks at Chickamauga park, embarked for Puerto Rico, where they saw some active service. The fourth regiment was ordered south to Anniston, Alabama where it stayed until the end of the war. All were mustered out within a few months after the war closed, and the majority entered again the re-organized National Guard of the state.

Notwithstanding that little active service was seen, the Wisconsin troops suffered much from sickness. The first regiment, Col. Samuel P. Schadel commanding, lost 47 men, mostly from typhoid fever, at Jacksonville, Fla. The second regiment, Col. Chas. A. Born commanding, lost 36 men from sickness. The third regiment, Col. Martin T. Moore commanding, lost 45 men from sickness; one, Corp. Oscar Swanson, Sparta, was killed in the engagement at Aibonita Pass, Puerto Rico, Aug. 12, 1898; and another, Private Fred Vought of Eagle River, wounded in that engagement, died of his wounds, the same day. The total loss to Wisconsin troops was 130 men. This state furnished two brigadier generals, Gen. Chas. King and Gen. Arthur McArthur.

Wisconsin: comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form, ed. by Ex-Gov. Geo. W. Peck (Madison, Wis., Western Historical Association, 1906).

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