Annual Meeting

Confederate “Whistling Dick” gun, Vicksburg, June 1863, Library of Congress

Date? October 26, 2023

Time? meeting 7 pm.

Where? Vintage Brewing Company, 500 Water Street, Sauk City

“Maj. Platt, who was in command of our sharpshooters, noticed through his glass that one of the men on the battlefield of the 22nd was yet alive. He called for volunteers to go to him. Lt. Sidney Shepherd and Private Kurata Shea of Company E. and Private Robert Lend of Company A volunteered to go to him. When they reached him they found him to be John Marquardt and they carried him off the field on his blanket. He said that the rebels gave him water, but they refused to carry him into their works, but they told him that they would not fire on any of our men who would go to bring him off the battlefield...” These words were written during the Siege of Vicksburg on May 24, 1863, by William McCready of Black Hawk. McCready was an Irish immigrant to Sauk County who began as a private but left the war as a captain with Company G of the Wisconsin 11th Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He kept a diary throughout the war which provides a first-hand look at events during this monumental part of US history. 

McCready’s account as well as those of several other soldiers from Sauk County are coming to life in a new SCHS educational initiative called Voices of the Civil War. This new video-based series is being created by SCHS board member and instructional designer Bev Vaillancourt as the newest addition to the SCHS educational curriculum, Bev Vaillancourt, M. Ed. has extensive experience in curriculum development.

Vaillancourt will share more of the extraordinary Civil War experiences of McCready and other Sauk County Civil War soldiers at the 2023 SCHS Annual Meeting on Thursday, October 26, 2023, at the Vintage Brewing Company at 600 Water Street in Sauk City.