Note 59 — CONTENTS OF VOLUME I (continued 2)

Thus the first of the seventy thousand soldiers who were to pass through Camp Randall during the next few years departed for the war. Of this farewell, and the further record of the regiment Reid wrote in old age as follows:

“On the twentieth day of June, the entire student force of the university formed part of the throng which assembled at the railroad depot to witness the departure of that gallant regiment, which was destined, before the return of its remnant to the state, to earn the proud but sad record of losing in battle more men in proportion to its numbers than any other regiment which fought on either side among the great hosts engaged in the tremendous struggle. That twenty per cent of its entire enlistment fell dead on battlefields during three years’ service cannot, indeed, be said of any other regiment of any nation in modern times.”