State Park, Main Gate, S. 81st St. and W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis, Milwaukee County 

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April of 1898, President William McKinley called on the states to gather their military forces. State officials ordered the Wisconsin National Guard to report for duty at Camp Harvey, named for Wisconsin Civil War Governor Louis P. Harvey and located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park. The Wisconsin National Guard had been established in 1879 to improve the existing militia system. The war with Spain (1898-1899) demonstrated for the first time the value of the National Guard as a reserve compo­nent of the army. In a time of crisis, the Guard units from Wisconsin and the other states could rapidly augment the small active-duty forces. Wisconsin contributed 5,469 men divided into four infantry regiments for service in the Spanish-American War. The First and Fourth Wisconsin Infantry regiments never left the United States. The Second and Third Wisconsin Infantry regiments participated in military opera­tions in Puerto Rico, where they lost two men killed in action. A total of 132 Wisconsinites died from disease, principally typhoid fever.

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]