“To Care for Him Who Shall Have Borne the Battle”
On March 3, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to create a national system of homes for disabled veterans of the Civil War, famously stating at his second inaugural address that the nation must “care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.” Many veterans had already returned home wounded or disabled, and it soon became clear that a nationwide effort would be required to adequately care for those who had sacrificed their health and well-being in defense of the Union. This work had previously been undertaken in Milwaukee by a women’s group called the West Side Soldiers Aid Society. Beginning in 1864, these women converted several storefronts on North Plankinton Avenue to a medical center and rest home providing basic aid to initial waves of disabled veterans. Their work was rewarded with a federal charter as the Wisconsin Soldiers Home Association. A month-long fund-raising fair held in the summer of 1865 raised more than $100,000 for the construction of a new facility, and the “Lady Managers” hoped this might become a permanent home for veterans:
“This home is not a wayside charity, or a transient recreation, but a serious and permanent assumption of a sacred
