2005 Senate Resolution 3
ENGROSSED RESOLUTION
Relating to: Black History Month and honoring Company F of the 29th USCT.
Whereas, February is Black History Month, giving all citizens an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the contributions African-Americans have made to Wisconsin, the United States, and the world; and
Whereas, during the Civil War a substitution and bounty system was established, allowing states to hire nonresidents and substitutes to meet their draft quotas for soldiers in the Union Army; and
Whereas, hundreds of African-Americans, including freemen and escaped slaves, were hired as substitutes and took the place of Wisconsin residents in combat, despite the fact that many of these African-Americans had never set foot in the state of Wisconsin; and
Whereas, many of these African-American troops substituting for Wisconsin residents served in Company F of the 29th Infantry of U.S. Colored Troops, 9th Army Corps, 4th Division, in the 2nd Brigade in the Army of the Potomac; and
Whereas, the men of Company F of the 29th USCT served with distinction and valor on behalf of Wisconsin, seeing action in the Battle of the Crater, the Petersburg Campaign, the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, the Richmond Campaign, the Appomattox Campaign, and the Rio Grande Campaign; and
Whereas, after the Civil War a small number of the surviving members of the 29th USCT returned without fanfare to live and work the remainder of their lives in Wisconsin; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the senate, That as part of Black History Month, the members of the Wisconsin senate salute the service of the men of Company F, 29th USCT, who placed themselves in harm's way in the cause of freedom; and, be it further
Resolved, That the members of the Wisconsin senate honor the memory of those African-American troops who laid down their lives as substitutes for Wisconsin residents.
