Second Friday Lecture: From Prison Guards to Prisoners: The Story of the Nineteenth Wisconsin

Friday, November 8  |  12:00pm – 1:00pm  |  Speaker: Larry Desotell

The presentation will track the history of this little known regiment from Wisconsin. After forming and training at Camp Utley in Racine, the regiment was stationed at Camp Randall to guard Confederate prisoners sent there after the Battle of Island No. 10 in April 1962. The talk will then concentrate on the regiment’s battle history, as members of the VII Corps and later the Army of the James, and how almost the entire regiment was killed, wounded, or taken prisoner at the Second Battle of Fair Oaks. These prisoners, who once served as guards, now tasted prison life from a different angle.

Larry Desotell was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin and graduated from St. Catherine’s High School. He received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and a M.A. in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. He taught United States History and Political Science at Arrowhead High School for 32 years. He is the author of “The Captured, the Sick, and the Dead: Confederate Soldiers At Camp Randall,” (2020) and “The Confederate Rest of the Story,” published in the Wisconsin Magazine of History (Spring 2021).