Confederate Rest

The Confederate soldiers buried here were members of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment, Confederate States of America. They were captured in the spring of 1862 during the Civil War Battle of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River south of Cairo, Illinois, where their task was to stop traffic carrying men and supplies to Northern forces farther south. After weeks of fighting under extremely difficult conditions, they were forced to surrender because constant fire from river gunboats and land forces made their position untenable. After surrender, they were moved to Camp Randall, and when they arrived many were suffering from wounds, malnutrition, and various diseases. Within a few weeks 140 graves were filled as the last resting places of these unsung dead, far from their homes in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Also buried here is Alice Whiting Waterman, a Southern woman who devoted more than 30 years of her life to caring for the graves of "her boys."

Madison, Wisconsin · United States